Begin Again
by WinchestersDollFace
Summary: Daily Planet reporter, Clark Kent, is forced to attend a fundraiser where he sees a woman from his past. The more he attempts to get closer, the more she pushes away, causing him to wonder why. He also knows that someday she will not be able to push him away, but he hadn't expected that day to arrive so soon. Clark Kent/ O.C., Man of Steel !
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: I Dreamed a Dream**

**Smallville, 2003**

Clark Kent was on the couch at home watching some T.V show that had failed to entertain him while his parents slept upstairs. He watched as the actors on screen were having one of those arguments where the writers attempted to throw in some humor, but weren't successful. His eyes were closing, he wasn't exhausted from helping his dad on the farm, but from pretending he enjoyed farm work. Physical labor rarely ever made him tired, but that could have been because he wasn't from this planet. He was an alien and had more strength than anyone on Earth. In addition to that he had better senses and could melt things with lasers that shot from his eyes. Why? He didn't know. Maybe the people on his original planet were like this. Or maybe he was a freak and that was why they had sent him away. He didn't know. The only people who knew about him were his parents and his best friend, Mitch.

Mitch Holmes lived in the smaller house with his younger sister, Anna, on the Kent farm. He was a hired farmhand who had moved back to Smallville from Los Angeles after his parents had died in an accident. Clark could remember when he was little, the Holmes family lived on the farm, he felt as if he had one true friend through all the weirdness he was enduring. Then Anna was born when Clark was turning five and the family moved out to California. He lost the one friend he had.

He heard a door screech open and slam shut from outside. It had to be the one of the Holmes', but why would either of them be outside at two in the morning? Clark turned his head towards his own door and was able to see Anna on the porch because of his x-ray vision. She was holding onto a duffel bag, which, Clark could see, contained a huge wad of money. It almost looked like she was running away. He leapt from the couch, wanting to kick himself for not realizing that she _was _running away. He threw his door open and ran in with his alien speed towards her. She was facing her brother's pickup truck when he put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to let out a scream.

"Jesus Christ, Clark!" she hissed at him when she realized who was behind her.

She was about five foot four to his six foot one, she had dark blonde hair that reached her shoulders and blue eyes. Her face was round with high cheek bones. She was one of those girls that tried with her looks, even at two AM. She wore a pair of dark jeans and a lacy blouse. She kept her makeup simple, the thing Clark's mom called eyeliner and the eyelash makeup.

He had never noticed her until a few months ago when she started helping his mom around the house. Clark had assumed she was one of those girls who took pride in being rude to others while expecting people to worship her, stayed on the phone all day, but complained about turning off the lights to conserve electricity and hated doing dirty work, yet preached that without hard work one wouldn't accomplish anything. He had been wrong, though. She spent her time writing stories or studying. Anna was smart, not the smart that made you feel stupid, but she liked to learn and had common sense. She was kind and witty. Clark couldn't pinpoint when he began to have feelings for her, but he couldn't act on them. She was eighteen years old, he was twenty three and, he couldn't forget to mention, that he was Smallville's black sheep. Anna Holmes didn't have to be dragged down to his status just because he liked her.

"Where are you going?" he asked her.

She nervously smiled, "A sleepover."

Clark knew she was lying, he could see that she had more clothes than she needed for a sleepover, she had money in her bag and there was the issue of it being too late, or early for that matter, to be arriving at somebody's house.

"Really? At two in the morning?" he inquired, taking the bag from her hands and opening it. "Why do you need hundreds to go to Rachel's house?"

Anna let out a natural, girlish laugh. He hated that he paid attention to it, but he did. He liked the way her laugh sounded. He believed it was her way of settling her nerves down.

"Clark, I want to be a writer. Mitch thinks it's a dumb idea, but I'm good at it and I don't see myself becoming the next J.K Rowling in Smallville."

"So where are you going to go?" he asked, disliking the idea the more he learned about it.

"My dad had a sister in L.A. She really hated Mitch for not going to college and moving back here when my parents died, but she's really wealthy. She got me into UCLA and I can't just sit here doing nothing," she explained, her eyes looking into his.

Clark knew he couldn't stop her, as much as he wanted to make her stay on the Kent farm, he couldn't let his emotions stand in the way of her dreams. He wanted to hug her, but decided it was out of character for him. He was the silent son who did crossword puzzles and sat in the corner while his mom chatted Anna up, so he turned around to go back home.

"Wait, you're not going to tell me how incredibly idiotic I am for doing this? For stealing Mitch's car and driving to L.A by myself?"

He turned back around, "I'm not my parents and I'm not Mitch. I'm your friend and I want you to be happy. Just be careful"

**MoS**

Anna Holmes turned her brother, Mitch's, truck onto the road from the Kent's farm as tears slid down her face. The song about dreams from _Les Miserables_ rang throughout her head as she continued to drive. She wanted to be a writer with all her heart, but there was a small part of her, the girl part of her that had hoped Clark Kent would run out of his house to stop her and confess that he harbored feelings of love towards her. She had hoped that he craved for a future with her in it. She had prayed for something bringing them together and she had thought God was answering them when Clark appeared behind her. Her heart had been racing as she explained her plan to him, but then he turned around. He wanted her to follow her dreams, he told her that he was her friend.

She supposed she found out the answer to the question that had bothered her for two years. Clark Kent, the tall, farmer's son with black, unkempt curly hair and blue eyes, the man who was incredibly good looking, but _so _fearless, _so _strong, didn't love her. She rolled her eyes at herself, she had been silly to think someone as young as her would capture somebody's attention. She felt so moronic for nearly memorizing everything about him, for wondering and allowing herself to get excited when he waved or smiled at her.

Even though she felt stupid, she couldn't erase the image of him, she didn't want to. His broad shoulders, the stubble on his face when he forgot to shave, the way one curl fell on his forehead. She didn't want the image of his blue eyes to leave her mind or the way he quietly observed her when she was helping his mother. Yet he had said it, "I'm your friend". If he ever had a moment to tell her anything, it would have been then and there, but it never happened and never would.

"But there are dreams that cannot be," she sang wistfully to herself. "And there are storms we cannot weather."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to the one review I received! Thanks to those who favorited the story and are following it! Makes me smile! I'd love to hear what you guys like or dislike, love or hate! I also hope you all keep reading. You guys are awesome! : ) **

**Chapter Two: Lovely Ladies**

**Metropolis, 2013**

Elyse Trent stared at herself in the mirror as she put on red lipstick. The color made her more cheerful, more hopeful for some reason, but she didn't understand why. She suspected it was some psychological reason… actually she knew it was a psychological reason, she had a bachelors in behavioral psychology.

Her blonde hair was in perfectly round curls, braided into an up-do that had been too complicated for her to do on her own, one of the girls from downstairs had to help her. She was wearing a light pink, lace gown and glanced at the high heels she was dreading to put on.

"Jesus did not die for _this,_" she muttered to herself, returning her focus to her lipstick as one of her supposed boyfriend's, Brady's, female friends, Sydney, walked in and turned on the television.

"Someone might have gotten a good look at the Superman guy! Finally! I heard he was _hot!"_ she shouted, her red extensions nearly falling from their place on her head.

Elyse ignored Sydney's rant about Superman. The man's identity hung by a thin string since he wore no mask. Elyse didn't think he would allow for some amateur with a cell phone to take a picture of him so that he would be exposed to the world. Besides there was only one guy she was focused on at the moment and he was putting on _his_ suit for a fundraiser.

The fundraiser was meant to raise money for the Metropolitan Cancer Society and some famous people were coming (Bruce Wayne from Gotham, some racecar driver and someone else that Elyse didn't really care for). She nearly sneered to herself as she thought about the fundraiser's true purpose. The mansion these people lived in, Brady, his friends and all these girls, it was a prostitution ring. Of course nobody really knew what it was, but Brady was hoping his girls would seduce some rich bloke and make him even wealthier.

At first, Elyse had suspected that it was some unusual roommate situation, but as time went by she realized Brady employed all the girls on the first and second floors as harlots. He was a pimp and Elyse couldn't wait to see the look on his face when one of the reporters coming to the Big Apricot would find out about it.

"Earth to Elyse! Brady will be so excited to see you in this!" Sydney excitedly said. "I mean, I'm not really a fan of gowns, but damn girl!"

Elyse had to refrain herself from scoffing, Sydney wasn't a fan of clothing that covered up her breasts or legs. It was her last night in this façade of pretending this was okay. Elyse would be free. She could go home to Washington D.C and sit in her own apartment. She didn't have to be near these people, near Brady, any longer. It had been unusual, however, to have someone always around. Some of the girls had just gotten lost in their life, made a wrong turn. They were sweet and Elyse wished there was more she could do to help them, but she had already given them huge sums of money for doing menial house chores and gave them the number to a women's shelter in New Troy. They were the girls that wanted different circumstances. They wanted to lead a normal life and after tonight they would be able to.

"Let's just get through this night without contracting an STD," Elyse mumbled.

"What?" Sydney cupped her ear with a hand.

"Let's get through this night without contacting MPD," Elyse smiled, reminding herself she had mere hours until she would be in Washington D.C.

**MoS**

Clark Kent was following his former girlfriend, Lois Lane, through the huge driveway of the Edin Manor. There was a huge fundraiser happening that had attracted celebrities to Metropolis and Perry, Clark's boss, wanted Lois to cover it for the papers. Clark, had the unfortunate task of tagging along since he was still technically learning about the Daily Planet. He tugged at his tie that was a little too tight around his neck and he suddenly realized how uncomfortable he felt in the tuxedo. Whoever chose this for him had miscalculated his proportions, or it was the Superman suit beneath the tux that was bothering him which meant it wasn't even the tuxedo itself. He began to wonder why he wore the thing underneath his clothes anyway. He could have easily exposed the manor as Clark Kent, the reporter.

The truth was he heard that the mansion's owner, Brady Edin, was running a prostitution ring right out of the mansion. It was a ballsy thing to do for someone like Edin. The man was a wealthy Metropolitan and Clark was sure he must have had a lot of people visiting. Surely someone had to suspect something? Clark wanted to see if there was anything that he could do to put an end to it. He was not excited about being in a room full of people who talked about the latest trends or the new shoes Jimmy Choo designed.

It would have been something like this, the fact that Clark, a farm boy, was attending a fundraiser, which he laughed about with his dad and best friend, but they were gone. Eight years ago a tornado took his dad's life while kidney cancer stole Mitch's. The cancer had metastasized incredibly fast and killed Mitch in a matter of months, Clark hadn't even known about it until he returned home a few months ago. He thanked God that he still had his mother, he thought he nearly lost her when General Zod attacked her, but Clark showed up in time to save her, not the house, though.

The reporters' guide led them inside the enormous manor, opening the old, maple doors to reveal a rather incredible sight. There were acrobats dangling from ropes made of silk in the lit ceilings. Dancers dressed in flapper skirts were putting on a show on one side of the massive hall while a jazz band put all of their might into playing their trumpets. Streamers, confetti and champagne glasses littered the hall just like the beautifully dressed people.

"You said you were?" their guide asked.

"Lois Lane and Clark Kent from the Daily Planet," Lois answered him, flipping her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder."You know this house reminds me of that movie-"

"The Great Gatsby?" the guide arched a brow.

"Yes!" Lois cheered, pulling out a pen and paper pad. "Is the theme of the party based on that?"

_There it is,_ Clark thought. _The work ethic that drove us apart. _ Lois was a wonderful woman, an amazing friend. She just hadn't been that great of a girlfriend because she was always busy. She never had any time for Clark and what was the point of being with her if he never saw her? They had ended things mutually, agreeing that being friends was better than being together.

"Actually yes…"

Their voices drifted away as Clark allowed his mind to lose itself in the intensity of it all. There were such vibrant colors from the clothing to the decorations. The music would force a normal human to shout to someone who stood beside them. As he turned his head to have a better look of the jazz band, he heard a girlish laugh that made him look to the direction from which it came. What came after was like one of the slow motion movies.

Clark saw Anna Holmes, grown, the ends of her hair lighter than her natural dirty blonde and a pink gown hugging the curves on her body. She was laughing, the laugh that Clark had forgotten he loved to hear in the past ten years, at some sleazy looking guy's statement. The look on her face didn't appear to be happy, however. It was one of annoyance or anger. Then he remembered what this was. It wasn't some clean charity; it was a front for prostitution. A gnawing feeling told him that Anna wasn't here as a guest, but a worker.

"You should write a book," she said, then vehemently added. "Cause that's such a funny story that only an idiot would believe!"

Clark smiled at her comeback, she had developed quite a personality. For the first time in a long time, he had no idea what to do. His routine had become the same. Wait for news about some villain, put on the Superman suit, stop him, save Lois from danger and return to being Clark. He hadn't expected to end things with Lois or see Anna with her hair curled, wearing a gown. One of the women she was standing nearby nudged her and pointed towards him. Clark looked away, after it dawned on him that he had been staring at her for longer than what was appropriate. He looked back and when their eyes met, he saw a slight smile form on her face. It encouraged him to approach her.

"Anna?" he asked, ignoring the gazes of the people who surrounded them.

"I'm sorry, you must have the wrong person," she replied, breaking eye contact and shaking her head. "You know they say every person has at least seven people in the world who look exactly like them. I've already gotten Amber Heard and Kristen Stewart, but not an Anna."

Every bone in his body told him that it was Anna Holmes. He knew he would recognize her if he saw her and he just did. Why had she lied to him? Why was she pretending to be someone else? Maybe she was embarrassed of being caught in this situation and didn't want him to know what happened with her life.

"I'm Elyse Trent," she explained, extending her hand, which he shook, noticing a small scar on her left wrist.

Anna never had such a scar, as far as he knew she didn't have a scar anywhere. He then noticed that on her other wrist, she had a small tattoo that read '_hope'_ in red, something that Anna said she would refrain from doing. He remembered the day when she had told his mother that. The pair had been cooking together, Martha was teaching her how to prepare a steak when Anna mentioned one of her friends tattooing her leg. Martha spoke out against the idea and Anna had agreed with her, saying it took away from a girl's natural beauty. Clark began to doubt his earlier assumption that this woman had been Anna Holmes. She was drastically different than the eighteen year old girl he remembered. This Anna- or Elyse- seemed confident, came up with comebacks right on the spot, her hair _was_ lighter and she had the tattoo. What if Clark had been mistaken?

"Clark Kent," he replied.

"What brings you here, Mr. Kent?" she questioned.

"I'm a reporter for the Daily Planet, actually," he notified her, wanting to slink back to Lois's side and finish exposing the prostitution ring.

"I didn't have you pegged as a reporter," she remarked, not paying any attention to the others. Truth be told, the others were making him uncomfortable. He didn't really like to be around so many people. Growing up in Smallville had accustomed him to not having many people around, especially not having others pretend they were his friends.

"And what did you have me pegged as?" he inquired.

Elyse looked straight into his eyes before saying, "A farmer."

_It's Anna. No one here aside for Lois knew I grew up on a farm,_ he thought. Why else would she have said farmer? At the moment, he was wearing glasses and a tuxedo, neither of which a farmer sported. She had to have known that he was Clark Kent from Smallville, son of Martha and Jonathon. She _had _to be Anna Holmes. How else would she have been spot on?


	3. Chapter 3

**Hope everyone who reads enjoys! Thanks to those who read/reviewed/followed/favorited! A special thank you to GravityDefier7827! I'm so excited to be moving forward with this story! **

**Chapter 3 : Identities **

"Remember Holmes, no funny business, you've just gotten enough evidence against this guy and the fundraiser is the tip of the ice berg," Anna's partner, Ryan Eckert, told her over the phone as she hid in one of the extravagantly designed bathrooms of Edin Manor.

At thirty four, Eckert was a by the book federal agent. He kept his hair in a buzz cut and was always in a suit. Anna had no vehement towards him about this, but sometimes she felt inadequate beside him. She was only twenty eight years old, known for not knowing when to stop talking and being the definition of a girl. She liked to wear dresses, even on the job she tried to wear beige or boring colored ones to fit the dress code of the FBI, but because of that she wasn't taken seriously. If you were a female agent you not only had to have back bone, you had to look like you had it too. The small, red tattoo on her wrist didn't help either, but she tried to cover it up as much as she could with makeup.

"Listen, Eckert, I've been here for about two months, I know how this guy operates. He keeps the girls here, but he doesn't sell them here," Anna explained, feeling sickened that she had to talk about the selling of human beings.

The agents had sent in Anna to find out to whom Brady was selling the women that lived downstairs. Anna deduced that it was a man more powerful than Brady. He had to have ties to Metropolis's gang world which gave him a means to threaten her fake boyfriend. It would definitely explain why a call never went to voicemail from this buyer and why Brady was terrified of him. The only piece of information the FBI was missing was where Brady met with this man, where he conducted business with him.

"Well, we need to find out where," Eckert stated the obvious as someone knocked on the bathroom door .

"Someone's in here," Anna shouted out. "I know. I figured out where he launders his money, didn't I? That was within the first couple weeks I was here, too."

"We have hours until that is dumped away by a judge. We need the man buying these prostitutes-"

"Don't call them that!" Anna interjected. "They're girls, okay? Like me, like your daughter."

"Relax , I'm on your side, Anna. We need him, so this doesn't happen again," Eckert explained to her as someone knocked on the door again.

"There's about eight other places in this house to take a leak in!" Anna yelled.

"Where are you?" Eckert asked, laughing.

"Bathroom."

" We're right outside, waiting for your go Holmes. You get this son of a bitch," Eckert encouraged her.

"Don't worry, I had to pretend I was the man's girlfriend for the past couple months, there isn't anything I want more than to see his ass in a cell," Anna replied.

"The faster you catch him, the quicker you can talk to Walt," he told her.

Anna felt confusion wash over her. Walt was the Assistant Director of the FBI, he never spoke to Anna unless it was to reprimand her for doing something wrong. She had no idea what he could have wanted to speak to her about.

"About what? This is a good bust!" she defended herself.

"He is thinking of promoting you to a different office," Eckert informed her, much to her unexpected delight. "No more long term undercover work."

Here she was sitting, expecting to be yelled at for something and he tells her she might be promoted! She had definitely not expected a possible promotion in her future. It was exciting and it made her almost grateful that she had ended up joining the FBI instead of pursuing a writing career.

"I've gotta' get Brady to tell me where these girls are being taken. He'll never give the name up of the man who buys them if he's more powerful than Brady," Anna said, hanging up the phone and slipping it into her bra before exiting the bathroom. She hated keeping her phone in such an inconvenient place, but she had no purse on her person and no other place to put it in.

"You were in there for a good half hour," a woman with long, dark hair complained in a high pitched voice.

"What is it with people and this bathroom?" Anna sighed. "Sorry, I was having issues. It's all free now."

The woman's expression suddenly developed into one of concern and regret, "No, I'm sorry Ms. Trent. I didn't realize it was you! I thought you were some nobody!"

Anna rolled her eyes when the woman finally walked into the restroom. She _was_ a nobody. That's what she wanted to be. She wanted to be the girl who lived in D.C and worked on the federal cases no other agent wanted. It was what would help her guarantee that promotion she just heard about.

She began to head downstairs to find Brady. She had to please him into telling her where his customer met with him so that she could call Eckert and have them storm the place. It was rather unfortunate that a party with the intensity of this one wouldn't last very much longer, but Anna was finally done. She didn't have to be Elyse Trent anymore. She could return to being Anna Holmes, the woman who wanted to sit on her bed to write stories all night and played Sudoku until one in the morning.

She reached the downstairs hall, where most of the festivities were taking place. If she wasn't an FBI agent, she might have allowed herself to enjoy the music, danced a little and drink a little alcohol. However she didn't even mind not being able to participate because the thought of being promoted made her happier than the present celebration.

Anna found Brady standing extremely close to Sydney, far closer than what people who called themselves friends stood next to each other. Even though Anna completely despised Brady, she couldn't help but feel angry. He was supposed to be her alias's boyfriend and here he was blatantly trying to seduce Sydney! She was excited to put him in handcuffs even more now.

"Really?" she asked accusingly when she reached them.

"Elyse!" he replied, keeping his tone even. That was the way he operated. He believed nothing could touch him and that the rules of society didn't apply to him. He could sleep with any woman he wanted, he could embezzle money and he could own prostitutes because he was Brady Edin. It made Anna's stomach turn.

"Oh no, please, don't stop flirting on account of me!" she shot at him.

"We were discussing our business opportunities for tonight," he lied. "The music was just too loud to do that."

"You mean opportunities for you to get lucky?" she countered.

"Elyse, we were just talking-"

Anna laughed, "You should write a book! Cause that's such a funny story only an idiot would believe!"

Brady bit his lip, she had him cornered. Perhaps this was good because she would be able to use that against him. She could say 'Brady you were about to cheat on me, tell me where you sell the girls! Tell me who your customer is!'. It was a long shot, but it might work.

Suddenly Sydney elbowed her and pointed towards the old maple doors, in front of which, stood an incredibly handsome man, a man that she would have immediately recognized in any room. Anna suddenly recognized him and felt a smile form on her lips. It was Clark Kent! Except he didn't look like the Clark she had stored in her memory. He was wearing a tuxedo, his hair was slicked back and he wore glasses. Anna thought back to the Clark that she knew. He wore a gray t-shirt that had 'Kansas' written on it, dirty jeans from helping his dad work on the farm and his hair was unkempt, curly. She had missed him and all she could think of was how much she wanted to go back to that farm in Kansas, make the decision to stay and be content with her life in a small town. Mitch had been right when he said leaving Smallville was a bad idea. She glanced at the scar on her wrist; it made her remember the trouble she had fallen into in Los Angeles. The thing that made her decide to join the FBI.

Clark began to approach her, she felt her heart begin to race. He had no idea she was an undercover FBI agent. The last time she spoke to him he saw her sneaking off of the farm. She hoped her appearance had changed enough so that she could convince him she wasn't Anna, at least for now.

"Anna?" he asked, his voice so welcoming, making her want to rush into his arms and tell him everything.

**MoS**

Brady had shooed away Clark from her minutes ago. At first she had been furious, she wanted to throw punches at him for making Clark leave. When she calmed herself down, though, and reminded herself she was on assignment, it made Anna realize it was for the best. Her line of work wasn't exactly safe and while she knew there was more brawn beneath Clark's tux than he let on, she couldn't expose him to that.

She swore an oath upon entering the FBI to protect people, and so would being Clark's friend, therefore potentially making him a target to the criminals she arrested, be protecting him? Not really, but was there any choice in the matter? She had to complete her mission, no exceptions. Even then though, she glanced down at her red tattoo. Hope. She still had to hope for something in her life, didn't she? With her family gone and no prospects of finding a man who would actually deal with her baggage, she had to hope that this meeting wasn't merely coincidence. She just couldn't quite figure out what it was and where Clark fit in with that hope. As the word made its way through her mind, it made her think of Superman and an article she read on him a few weeks back. The now famous red 'S' on his chest did not stand for Superman, but for hope. She couldn't help but think that it was ironic how they were connected through a color.

"Elyse," Brady said to her dragging her from her thoughts as they walked together. "I want you to help me tonight. With the business."

She knew she should have reacted more spontaneously to that statement. It was what she had been waiting for, but she couldn't quite bring herself out of the slump she put herself in. What if she never saw Clark again because of what happened tonight? Something good from her past had finally popped back into her life, and now it could be taken away just as quickly.

_It's for his own good, Anna,_ she told herself. _Now get your butt into Elyse mode and finish this case without any issues!_

"In order to do that I would need to know where to take them, Brady," she said. "Where _do_ you take them? "

"There is a motel along the interstate if you take it north. It's called Pine Motel. Room six," he explained to her.

"I'm glad you're letting me help," she grinned, glancing at the bar. "I think I'd like a drink to celebrate."

"Of course," Brady nodded, heading towards the bar.

Anna quickly pulled her phone out and dialed Eckert's number.

"You got it?" he asked upon answering.

"Pine Motel room six! Send a team there! You and your guys storm this place from the back!" she ordered. "But Eckert, Brady is _mine_!"

With that she hung up and waited for Brady to return with a glass of champagne. He looked satisfied with himself, but Anna knew it wouldn't last for much longer. Two months work and she was finally able to tell him how she _really _felt.

"You know, I was surprised when you moved in you weren't disgusted by the business," he handed her the champagne, which she quickly handed off to a passing by waiter when Brady looked away.

"That's rather much to assume," she confidently replied.

"Excuse me?"

Anna felt her mind ease itself into that pre-reveal mode. It was her favorite part of the case. Telling the suspect who she really was, that they weren't as clever as they believed themselves to be. Sometimes they tried to run, but they wouldn't run very far and sometimes they used force. Other times, if they wealthy or influential, they attempted to bribe her.

"I just mean you saw me working for one of your guys one day and decide that I'm good enough to date you. What if I weren't Elyse? What if I were a spy from your rivals? _Or _a fed? Did it ever cross your mind to get a background check before trying to have a relationship with me?" Anna said. "You aren't as smart as you think you are, Brady, because in five minutes you'll have feds storming this place and tearing your 'business' apart."

"You're FBI?" his face turned red and Anna knew he was furious. The grip he had on his glass tightened, he nearly broke it.

"My lawyers will have me out by morni-"

"Oh you can have ten, fifteen lawyers on your side, but no jury will rule in your favor once they hear what's been going on to these girls," Anna informed. "You're ass is going to prison."

As soon as Anna finished saying that she saw Eckert rushing in, sporting a kevlar vest and holding a handgun. Guests screamed as one of the agents told the band to stop playing any music. People stared at the scene, attempting to figure out what was happening. Whatever it was that scared him, maybe the thought of sitting in a cell for the rest of his life, it prompted Brady to start running and Anna let out a frustrated grunt.

"Go get him!" Eckert shouted at her as she kicked off her shoes and bolted after him.

"You're joking right?" Anna yelled after Brady, feeling an ache in her chest from a lack of oxygen. "Dude your face will be across the world in five minutes you won't get away!

She continued to run around people, praying that she wouldn't step on anything sharp, and she ran into the enormous backyard with an equally enormous pool which Brady would run straight into if he didn't turn his head forward. Anna somehow mustered the energy to move her legs faster in order to catch up with him and she pushed him into the pool. She had underestimated his From underneath the water she could hear screams from the frightened guests and something that resembled a gunshot. Anna felt Brady's arms holding her down. She couldn't believe that he was trying to drown her. She struggled to free herself, tried to kick, but the water slowed each of her movements not allowing her to have the upper hand. If Eckert didn't show soon, she would be in a body bag taken to the morgue. Even though she was close to death, Anna was able to find a silver lining in the fact that at least Brady would have a murder charge against him if she died.

A few seconds later something ripped the millionaire off of her, allowing her to swim up for air. She saw Brady was hung from one of the rafters, his jacket tied around it while he held onto it for dear life. Anna heard something swoosh by her ear and when she turned around she saw the man the world has been talking about nonstop, flying into the starry sky. She could make out his blue suit and red cape, it had been Superman who saved her life.

"You alright?" Eckert finally ran out after her as she tried to make sense of the recent events.

"Never better," she answered swimming to the edge of the pool, taking her partner's hand to stand on solid ground. "He was here."

"Who was here?" Eckert asked, tucking his gun away.

"The man of steel," Anna informed, her eyes still stuck on the night sky, wishing he would return so that she could say thanks.

"It'd be nice if he came back to get that excuse for a human off of there," Eckert pointed at Brady who was flailing around, trying to find footing on the roof.

"Would it be so bad if he fell?" Anna jested as a woman with long, strawberry blonde hair approached her.

The woman was pretty and made her feel insecure about herself. Her hair was in loose curls, she had pretty, sparkly blue eyes and a kind face. Anna could tell she was taller than her without the heels and had more flattering curves. She wore a strapless purple gown with matching shoes.

"Are you an agent?" she inquired as Anna, still dripping from her little rendezvous in the pool, nodded her head. "I'm Lois Lane, Daily Planet. Can we maybe talk for a second?"

Anna glanced at Eckert, he was the senior agent, so she usually followed his instructions unless her gut told her otherwise.

"I don't see why not," he encouraged her. "I've got a team dispatched to Pine Motel and this place is being taken care of. Just remember we have to talk to Walt tomorrow morning. No details until the case is shut tight."

Anna couldn't believe it. She would actually be able to hear 'Good job Holmes' come from her boss's lips. Maybe Hell was freezing over or pigs were flying? She didn't know, but she was just excited to go home, sleep in her own bed, and hear that she had a good bust.

As she followed the reporter back inside the manor, she paused near the doorway to take one more look in the sky. Would Superman return? How had he known this operation was occurring tonight?. He didn't have to save her, yet he did. She wanted to know why… she needed to know.

**Again thanks to all those who reviewed and favorite/ followed this story! Much thanks to GravityDefier7827 for editing! Leave any thoughts! I love hearing them! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks to Miinou20 and GravityDefier7827 chapter 4 was able to happen! I hope everyone enjoys!**

**Chapter 4: Eckert & Holmes are Mulder & Scully **

**Washington D.C**

_This is what dying must be like_, Anna thought to herself as she sat beside Eckert, waiting for Walt in outside of his office. _I might literally die in this chair and nobody would care. Well maybe Eckert, but he has his crap to worry about. _

Her head was pounding from the near death experience she had the previous night and her eyes desperately wanted to close for a few minutes. Scratch that, centuries. The only thing keeping them open was the idea that she would be fired if Walt found her asleep. She not only felt her stomach grumble but she heard it as well, making the agents around stare at her. She was aware that they were judging her or internally laughing and that made her want to crawl beneath a rock.

"Didn't you eat breakfast this morning?" Eckert whispered, leaning over to her.

She leaned towards him, "Eckert we've worked together for two years. You know I eat like a hobbit. I have to have breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, tea, dinner, supper. And because I was called in early today, I had to skip second breakfast."

"Your life is centered on food," he mumbled causing Anna to gasp.

"Are you calling me fat?" she demanded in a whisper, checking her phone, only to see the ten fifty-nine change to eleven AM. "_And_ now I missed elevensies."

"No more _Lord of the Rings_! I want it hidden away! Gone somewhere where nobody will look for it! L-like the bottom of the ocean or a cave!"

"Gollum lives in a cave," Anna pointed out as a couple of the other agents laughed at her joke. "See they know what I'm talking about."

"Eckert, Holmes," Walt called them in, prompting them to stand up and walk in together. "Thank you for coming in."

"You are our b-"

Eckert elbowed Anna before she could finish saying 'boss'. She quickly shut her mouth, deciding it would be best if she didn't say anything. That was one of her major flaws, she had a knack for saying things at the wrong time and then ending up in trouble for saying them. She didn't want to ruin her chances at working with a department that didn't involve dating men you hated.

"You guys wanna' sit down?" he urged, motioning to the two seats in front of his desk.

Anna studied his workspace. He was neat, everything was in its proper place. The papers were stalked on one side, his pens in one cup, pencils in another. There was a plaque that read 'Walt Tanner' and a Dell computer screen on the opposite side of the papers. It was this neatness that had helped him receive the position of assistant director. He liked things to be organized, much like the thoughts that ran through his head. To him there was a time and place for everything. She assumed he was slightly conservative on his political views due to the fact that he had keys to a nice car on his desk and a Bible passage scribbled onto one of the papers on his desk, but that deduction was a stretch.

After a few moments of silence, Anna glanced at Eckert and then Walt, "Sir did you want to tell us something?"

He nodded his head, "You guys did a wonderful job on this case. That's saying a lot about you, Holmes, coming from me. I was surprised that you didn't screw anything up or break any laws."

"Thank you, sir," Eckert expressed his gratitude for both of them, putting his hand up to stop Anna from saying anything rude. The thing was Walt was right. Anna would bend the rules in order to solve a case. Sometimes it was blown out of proportion, but most of the time she just couldn't think of anything else at the time.

Anna felt herself become impatient, her foot began to shake from the excitement of hearing that she wouldn't have to be undercover anymore. She could already see her future- working in plainclothes, having a weapon by her side in the event of someone attacking her and being able to introduce herself as Anna Holmes, not Elyse Trent or Alexandra Sarna or Stephanie Williams.

"There's a new department being opened up here. Ever since the U.S learned about the existence of alien life with Superman it began to wonder what else there was," Walt told them.

"What exactly do you mean?" Eckert asked.

Anna understood it, the thought had crossed her mind dozens of times, "They want to know what other myths and legends are real."

Eckert turned his head towards Walt who was nodding his head in agreement with Anna, much to her surprise.

"You can't be serious," he nearly laughed. "We're not Mulder and Scully. That's a show, Walt. Come on."

Anna wanted to laugh too, but Eckert's earlier nudge had stayed with her and forced her to act accordingly. She always wanted to believe in those things, it would have been a nice escape from reality, but it was too impossible. Aliens, she was able to understand since the universe was huge. Earth couldn't possibly be the only planet with life on it and Superman didn't even look like what people thought would be an alien, which proved that the so called grays didn't exist. This idea of finding out what else existed, though, seemed a little ridiculous. What did the U.S want the FBI to find? Vampires? Psychics? Zombies? They didn't exist and no amount of resources put into this investigation would prove anything.

"I'm not pleased about this either, but higher powers are forcing this upon the Bureau and I can't do anything about it. They want two agents who aren't so quick to believe in these types of things, but open enough to accept them as truth when no other explanation exists," Walt explained.

When Anna heard she was receiving a promotion, she hadn't expected it to be the _X-Files_, but what could she do? If she stayed on, did her job and proved nothing existed then the Bureau would have to close down the department for wasting money and valuable agents.

"I accept, sir," Anna agreed, causing Eckert to give her a look that said 'you're crazy'.

"Good, now I only have to force Agent Eckert here," Walt replied, pulling out a manila folder and handing it to Eckert. "That is your first assignment. A woman disappeared from her apartment in Metropolis a week ago and Metro Police can't find anything. No forced entry through anything, the keys were in the house. Her car in the garage. Her husband says weird things have happened there. Doors opening or closing themselves. Just go there, find her and disprove this. You're dismissed."

Anna stood from her seat and her partner did the same. They were headed towards the door when Walt said, "And Anna don't forget about that reporter in Metropolis today. No juicy details that would ruin the case you just closed."

**MoS**

**Metropolis, 2013**

Clark was working on an article the day after the fundraiser when Lois walked in with a grin on her face. He was recounting the events of the party, trying to figure out how best to write about both how big the party was and how the criminals were caught by the FBI. While he did so, his mind tried to wrap itself around the idea of Anna being FBI. She had been so determined to become a writer, she was good at it too. Before he left Smallville, he helped Mitch renovate the house and found a notebook with unfinished stories that he read.

"I have news for you," Lois interrupted his work. He leaned back in his chair and looked up at her.

"What's that?" he sighed, wanting to return to his article so that he could move on to the next one.

"You know that girl you were talking to at the fundraiser before the FBI came in?" she asked. "She was undercover in that manor for two months. She's in D.C talking to her boss, but she's coming back here for an interview. I think there's a story there!"

Clark laughed, "You convinced her to fly to D.C, then fly back?"

"I'm a pullit-"

"Pulitzer prize winning journalist," Clark filled in for her. "I know."

"Look, it isn't any of my business, but it kinda' looked like you knew her," Lois brought up.

Clark knew that to anybody who cared to watch this interaction, it was odd. How could two people who were once together, talk to one another like nothing ever happened between them? The truth was, Clark just didn't have anybody else to talk to. If Perry wasn't demanding another article then nobody else really wanted to speak to him. Lois was a good friend and she didn't have a sinister agenda when asking about Anna. She hinted multiple times that the intern, Jenny, was interested in Clark, but it just didn't feel right. He appreciated the fact that they were still able to maintain a friendship and had no hard feelings.

"Her brother was born on the farm and lived there until he was about six, that was when she was born and their parents moved them to L.A," Clark explained to her. "Then their parents passed away when she was about sixteen, her brother was broke and asked my dad if he could move back on the farm."

"Really? That's all there is to her?" Lois asked ,her voice full of doubt. "Clark the way you ran up to her was nothing I've seen before. It's like me when I see something worth writing about."

Clark smiled at the remark she made about herself. He didn't want to talk to Lois about Anna much longer, he liked to keep that part of his life to himself. He had never told anybody that he once had feelings for her-maybe still had. He sighed, returning to his computer. He had to finish this story, so that he could find the topic of his next article. He was still trying to make sense of his encounter with Anna last night. She obviously wanted him to know it was her, otherwise she wouldn't have told him she believed him to be a farmer, but what if she had moved on? She was grown, she had her own life to deal with. Surely if she found out about him, she wouldn't want to have anything to do with him.

"Come on Clark!"

"I'm not where your story is, Lois," he reminded her. "Anna is."

"Will you be in the room when she arrives?" Lois asked him.

"I don't have a choice now, do I?" he pointed out. "I'm still the new guy."

"Thanks!" Lois cheerfully said, prancing off to her desk.

Clark shook his head and continued to type. He tried to stay away from the Superman stories as much as possible, but sometimes he didn't have a choice. If there were witnesses, like the ones at the party, they would talk about how Superman appeared and if he avoided writing about himself, people would say 'Hey Clark, why did you avoid writing about the alien?'

"The grand celebration was interrupted when the Federal Bureau of Investigation swarmed the place in search of Broderick Edin. Further questioning revealed that Mr. Edin has been discreetly running a prostitution ring from his manor. One agent, whose name shall not be given out, gave chase when Edin attempted to flee the premises. Said agent chased him out to the enormous pool described earlier and pushed Edin in while being pulled in herself. Guests began to flee when gunshots were fired from within the manor while Edin held down the agent in an effort to murder her. This is where the man of steel , Superman, appeared, flying into Edin, successfully ripping him off of the federal officer and dragging him into the sky where he left him stranded on the roof. It was there that I saw a streak of blue and red in the night sky," Clark whispered to himself as he typed his article.

A couple of hours later he was still trying to figure out how to word certain things he wrote in a better way. He wanted this piece of work to be the one that helped him become the Planet's crime reporter. That way he wouldn't be questioned for being at a crime scene.

"I still can't believe you're a reporter," he heard a voice from above him.

Clark glimpsed up and saw Anna standing in front of his desk with a smile on her face. The pink gown was replaced by a gray dress and her hair was in a braid that fell over her shoulder. He could tell she was exhausted by the rate of her breathing that could only be seen with his vision. The breaths she took were slow, but long, meaning she needed more oxygen to stay awake. She, however, wasn't letting on that she was tired.

"I can't believe you were actually at something like that," he said, trying to contain the wave of emotions he was feeling.

"That's a lot coming from the guy who grew up on a farm," she countered as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Point taken," Clark stood from his seat as questions filled his mind. "What happened to you Anna?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, then nodded her head as if she understood him. "You agree with my partner. You guys think I'm fat. Well I've got news for you, a hobbit eats-"

Clark was confused by the words that had rushed out at him. He recognized this in Anna, she had done this the night she left. She was trying to be funny so that she didn't have to feel anything. To her, trying to think of jokes or funny things was better than thinking of unresolved issues. The thing Clark couldn't figure out was what her issue was.

"I meant the FBI, Anna," he interrupted her. "I thought you were a prostitute, for Christ's sake. You stopped writing, you never called."

"Oh, yeah, that," Anna shrugged. "I guess pushing perps into pools is more fun than writing stories."

"I was under the impression you became a writer," Clark began, standing up from his swivel chair. "You _ran away_ to become a writer."

He noticed Anna quickly glimpse at her scarred wrist, "Things changed, Clark."

Clark gazed into her eyes, refraining himself from dragging her to the break room and forcing her to tell him what happened. Even Mitch had thought she was in Los Angeles pursuing a writing career. Clark was hurt, ten years ago she had been comfortable around him and he around her. Now he felt as if she wanted him to leave her alone. What had changed her? What happened to change her dreams? He needed to know the story behind that scar. It seemed like whatever it was that did that to her forced Anna to give up her dream.

"Let me take you to Lois," he turned around, to keep his frustration a secret and guided her to Lois's desk.

"Oh! Agent Holmes!" Lois greeted her, jumping her from swivel chair and extending her hand.

"Hi, Ms. Lane," Anna shook the reporter's hand.

"I was thinking we could go to a Starbucks or something for this," Lois suggested.

Anna nodded her head, "Sounds good as long as we finish by four."

"Yeah, sounds good," Clark interjected, causing Anna to whip her head towards him.

"You'll be there too?" she queried, a nervous gleam in her eye.

"I hope that's alright?" Lois saved him. "I'm just showing him the ropes around this place."

"No, no, no! I didn't mean it like 'oh my God, eww! I don't want you there'," Anna explained herself, the rate at which she spoke increasing. "It was just a 'oh hey! I had no idea you would be asking me questions!'."

He didn't want to let this chance pass him by like the one a decade ago had.

**MoS**

"So what made you join the FBI?" Lois questioned Anna, making her think back to her freshman year at UCLA.

If she were alone with Lois, she might have told her story to her. She didn't mind telling it to strangers because she didn't care what they thought of her. However, Clark was sitting beside her, the tuxedo replaced by jeans and a plaid shirt. He still wore his glasses which, Anna had to admit, she thought he looked really cute in. His hair was curlier today than it had been the night before and he was focused on writing down the answers Anna was giving them. There was no way she could tell him what happened, it would make him think less of her. _She_ thought less of herself and she had changed. The only people who would know were Eckert and Martha Kent.

"I was in college and there was this guy recruiting, kind of like the military recruiters, except less in your face and more honest," Anna lied as she finished her coffee.

Lois must have noticed this because she pushed herself away from the table and said, "Let me get you another one."

Anna allowed herself to relax in her seat while Clark finished scribbling down what she had said. He seemed hurt and she knew it was because she was pushing him away. It was better, though, for him to believe she had turned into a cold hearted robot than for him to learn the truth. That and she couldn't allow for him to be put in harm's way. She had chosen this for herself and these were the stipulations.

"Do you not like coffee?" she broke the ice, noticing that he hadn't touched his cup since he purchased it.

"Anna, it's just, I know you and it isn't easy for me to believe that you gave up becoming an author just because some recruiter talked you into it," Clark called her out on the lie. "Does the FBI even have recruiters?"

Ten years later and the guy could read her like a book, even after she had spent years learning how to make her face expressionless.

"Clark, it's better if you don't know," Anna put her hand on his to show him she _did _care.

"Does anyone know?" he asked.

"The agent that led the raid on the mansion, Eckert," she answered, omitting Martha's name in order to prevent him from asking his mother about it. "He's my partner."

"Anna," he began, taking his other hand and placing it atop of hers. "I'll be here when you want to tell me."

At the very least, he wanted her in his life. The fear Anna had of him disappearing was slowly melting away. While she did not want him to learn of the wrong turns that had occurred in her life, she knew she wanted him in her life too. Was there a way to make it possible? Was there a way to have him accept he would not learn what happened? Was there a way to keep him from harm's way?

Suddenly Anna could hear her ringtone playing from her pocket and felt her cheeks grow red.

"I'm sorry," she said as they both laughed and she reached into her jacket for her phone. "Holmes."

"You finished yet?" Eckert asked from the other end.

"Yeah, I'll meet you at the apartment, give me the address," Anna told him, her hand still in Clark's. What she would give to sit there with him, holding hands.

"It's the Farmington Apartments on Tribeca Avenue in New Troy," Eckert explained to her. "Apartment 25."

"See you there," Anna hung up as Lois returned. "I've got to go, but I'll be in town for this case at the Holiday Inn."

With that she collected her things, said her goodbyes and ran down the street to hail a taxi. First things first, she had to solve this case before figuring out her life. Her life was looking up after a storm. While this rainbow didn't make the bad things disappear, it was a ray of hope in her life and she didn't want to stop marveling at it.

**What did everyone think? Review to let me know!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you to all who reviewed/ favorited! A thank you to GravityDefier7827 and Miinou20 for being awesome and reading my chapters over for me! **

**To:**

**Winterrain36: I agree! They're two conflicted individuals who prefer being alone rather than surrounded by people who will talk about them behind their backs. Hopefully they will be able to find support for one another! Anna may have a few tricks up her sleeve as a way of finding out who Clark really is, if he doesn't tell her himself before she figures it out!**

**saber007: Lois and Clark did have a past relationship, yes. I don't think any writer, whether they are well known or writing on here, can write a Superman story without Lois in it. She is not someone who is mean and is out to hurt people, she is just ambitious. I think it's important to recognize that when writing a fanfic with an original character paired with Clark. That being said, Anna is human and allows her emotions to get the best of her sometimes, so we'll see! **

**8bitBatman: Thank you for the compliment! I wanted Anna to have a background story so readers would understand her better and understand why she does the things she does. Why she trusts certain people. I don't want to make her seem completely independent "I don't need a man" type of thing, but she is a woman who knows she can make it in the FBI, even if her career is in danger! **

**Thanks for reading so far everybody! You guys are awesome! Here's chapter five, enjoy it and leave your thoughts!**

**Chapter 5 : Instincts**

**Metropolis**

Eckert arrived at the apartment belonging to the missing woman in New Troy, Metropolis by himself. Anna had gone to the Daily Planet to meet up with a reporter who wanted to write one of those in-depth articles about the FBI. Truth was, Eckert was afraid that the reporter would try to tear into his partner, try to make her look like a fool and then write about how the FBI had no idea what they were doing. While Anna tended to allow her determination to find a person responsible for a crime and ignore the law, she did not deserve such an expose about her circling the Big Apricot. He didn't want to see his best friend in the dumps, even if she made lame _Lord of the Rings_ references and never stopped talking.

Eckert tried to focus on the crime scene, but the problem was that nothing seemed to indicate that this _was_ a crime scene. He had a hard time believing that this lady, Yvonne Morris, disappeared without a trace. Eckert opened the manila folder which contained Morris's file.

_**Morris, Yvonne Evelyn**_

_**Sex:**__ Female __**Age:**__ 34 __**D.O.B**__: 11/24/1978_

_**Height**__: 5'9" __**Weight:**__ 144 _

Eckert paced around as he flipped a paper over to see if there was a photo of his missing person. Luckily there was an 8x11 with a picture of a pale woman with curly, ginger hair and freckles. Next, he read the report her husband had filed with MPD. The man, Evan Morris, had left somewhere because he didn't want to interrupt Eckert while he investigated. Eckert flipped to the report and began to read what had been written :

_My wife works near the big companies at a bank. She's there everyday, save Sunday, until five PM. I work until six-thirty. She never goes out before calling to see if I would be interested in tagging along or to tell me where she put dinner and how to heat it up. I parked the Ford right next to her Honda in the apartment's parking structure. I walked inside the apartment, dinner was in the oven, the fridge was open, her keys were in their proper place. All of her shoes were in the closet. She was gone. Ever since we moved in three months ago, it felt like there was something with us in the apartment. Neighbors told us rumors that someone had been murdered here. I feel like this may have something to do with that. _

Eckert let out a sigh. He was angry that he had to work on the X-Files. If these were the types of cases he and Anna were to investigate, he might as well give up his career. Eckert began to head into the kitchen, but heard the front door squeak open. His hand instinctively went to the gun on his hip. While he didn't believe that her disappearance was the work of a ghost as the husband claimed, his mind couldn't help but recall that Walt mentioned doors opening and closing by themselves. A few seconds later he saw Anna walk in sluggishly, seemingly worried or upset.

"It's just you," he greeted her, sounding relieved, as she looked at him with a funny expression.

"Who else would it be?" she asked. "Every law enforcement officer on the planet thinks this case is a joke. Can't blame them, I think it's a little much to say your spouse was kidnapped by a ghost."

Eckert shrugged, not wanting Anna to know he had been momentarily frightened of that same imaginary ghost. He scanned the area, trying to see if there was any evidence at all. Just then Anna let out a laugh, making him look back up at her.

"You thought I was a ghost," she jested, seeing through him

"No," he brushed her away. "How was your interview, Jay Leno."

Anna shrugged, "I got to see Clark."

Eckert arched his brow, "Who?"

She rolled her eyes, a sure sign that he had annoyed her, "Clark Kent. I told you about him!"

He tried to remember who she was referring to. An image of a farm came into his mind and he recalled that Anna had once lived on a farm owned by a man named Jonathon. This man apparently had a son named Clark who became a reporter in Metropolis.

"How did that go?" he asked while she searched the place.

"I still am very much in love with the guy," Anna answered sadly.

Eckert didn't understand Anna. If she was in love she should have been happy, yet she found a way to be miserable. He noticed that she did this with anything good that came into her life. She would try to find something that would make her miserable and continue to be miserable. It was almost as if she didn't believe she deserved to be happy.

"Why the long face then?"

"Eckert, he doesn't know what happened," she pointed out.

He shrugged, noticing a picture on a nearby bookshelf that had a thumbprint on it. While he took out something he could collect the DNA off of the picture frame, he allowed Anna to continue explaining this misery of hers.

"He would be so disappointed in me," she said, touching the scar on her hand. "He'd think I don't deserve to be locking people up when I'm the one who needs to be in the cell."

"Anna, come on," Eckert walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You were nineteen and a screw up like each of us were at that age."

"From what I hear you weren't like that," Anna replied, picking up the file to look it over. "I've been trying to figure out a way to keep him in my life without telling him, but in every scenario that plays out in my head he finds out and leaves."

Eckert didn't know how to make her feel better. He hadn't fallen into the same type of problems as his partner did. He hadn't been found by campus police after a party that went wrong. The thing he did know, though was that if she loved Clark and if this man, by some chance, loved her back, she had to tell him. Besides he was pretty sure the man would have a few of his own secrets that he was afraid to share with her, that's just the way humans were. Eckert knew from experience that honesty was the best policy in a relationship, or else it would lead to divorce where one parent never saw enough of his kid.

"We all mess up, Anna," he started as she continued to look through Morris's file. "You see it every single day with the people you arrest. While what you got yourself into wasn't that great and it was embarrassing, you can't push it away by making jokes. You deserve to forgive yourself after how hard you've worked to turn around. I'm sure if I can look past your hand with the scar and onto the hand with hope on it, then this guy can as well."

Anna smiled gratefully at her partner. He could tell she was touched because she wasn't making any jokes and she was avoiding _Lord of the Rings _references for his sake. That was how they made their partnership work.

"Do you know if detectives questioned the husband? Cause' this report is so crummy," she refocused on their first _X-File, _for lack of a better term.

"Yeah, they cleared him though," Eckert explained, noticing an odd tapestry on the wall. It was hung so that it was brushing against the floor when there was about a foot of wall space left above it.

"Does that seem odd to you?" he asked, pointing to the wall.

"A carpet on the wall? Yeah," she replied. "Normal people use it on the floor."

"No, Anna, look how low it is," he brought attention to it as she nodded her head and walked over to it.

She touched the tapestry and developed a look of revelation on her face. She moved it to the side to reveal that it had been covering a door to the next apartment.

"I think you may have found our kidnapper's entry point," she remarked with a grin on her face.

**MoS**

Clark was flying through the air, his red cape billowing behind him as he tried to find perspective on Anna. When the agent had left the Starbucks, Lois couldn't help but start asking questions. Clark didn't blame her, it was in her nature…

"_She seems tough," Lois remarked, sipping on her coffee as Clark handed her the notebook in which he had written everything down the trio had discussed during their interview. _

"_She is," he replied. _

"_Something happened to her, Clark, and I know you know what it is-"_

"_Lois, no," he interrupted her. "Something _did_ happen, but she won't tell me what it is."_

_He noticed Lois's eyes on him, trying to figure out what he was thinking, "Look, I won't go near that in the article. I won't even try to find out what it is. I can tell that you're hurt by this, but even though you are, you like her… a lot. I can tell she likes you to and so I'm going to say that since you're a reporter when you're not Superman, go dig into her past and find out what it is that she's keeping from you. Try to sympathize next time you see her and she'll tell you herself."_

"_Thanks," he nodded as it dawned on him that he _could_ do that. He could fly to UCLA, figure out what happened. He was, after all, Superman. He didn't have to fly with the airlines, he could get anywhere he wanted to in a matter of seconds. _

"_Just remember, Clark," Lois added. "She _will_ feel awkward when she learns that we were once together."_

_Clark hadn't even thought of that. How did he go about telling Anna that he had once dated Lois, a woman he had worked with? Obviously he wouldn't have stuck around the Daily Planet if he still felt something for her, but Anna might find it difficult to understand. Then there was the fact that he was Superman. How would he tell her he was the alien that she heard about? He had been so focused on the secrets she was keeping that he had forgotten about his own…_

Clark landed in the cornfield outside of the house that contractors had finished rebuilding for his mother. He wanted to see what her opinion on this issue was before he began to dig into Anna's college years.

"Mom!?" he shouted from outside as the dog ran from the porch to greet him. "Hey, boy. Where's mom, huh?"

"Clark? Is that you?"he heard her say from the door as he ran up the stairs. "It's gets stranger and stranger for me to see you in that thing. I guess it's just 'cause I know it's my son in there."

Martha wore a plaid, sleeveless shirt and a pair of jeans. Her graying hair was braided back and she had a Sears tag pinned to her shirt.

"It's what I've got to do, Mom," he answered, looking down at his feet.

"What's wrong?" she asked, welcoming him in and giving him a hug.

"Mom, I saw Anna," he told her, knowing she would understand.

**MoS**

"It's like she doesn't trust me anymore," Clark explained to his mom, wishing he still had his dad so that he could tell a man what was going on in his life.

"I don't think it's that, honey," his mother comforted him. Being home made him feel like he could give up his persona. This was where he was safe, he didn't have to pretend he wasn't an alien, he didn't have to hide his strength or his powers. To his mom he was Clark Kent, the son she adopted when he fell from the sky and raised him without treating him otherwise.

"Then what else could it be? She knows I care for her," Clark thought out loud, trying to pinpoint the problem.

"How would she?" Martha asked him. "Did you ever tell her? Anna's smart, but she doesn't exactly grasp when someone feels something for he, Clark. It's like when she lived here and that Aidan boy kept coming by with flowers."

Clark laughed as the memory resurfaced in his mind. Aidan was a kid in Anna's class who had developed a crush on her. He would come by every weekend with a bouquet of flowers for her and she assumed that he wanted to give them to the Kents for their farm, but felt more comfortable handing them to her.

"Remember when I left for a couple of days to Colorado?" his mother brought up, placing a cup of tea on the table by him.

"Yeah, for that girls weekend," Clark recalled, taking a sip of his tea.

"I went to see Anna in Los Angeles," his mother revealed, shocking him.

"What do you mean? Why? She didn't tell anybody else that she was leaving except for me," Clark pointed out.

Martha shook her head, "I'm not exactly sure what happened, Clark, but Anna was hurt. She was scared and she needed someone to help her settle down."

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked. "You knew how I felt-"

"Clark, she begged me not to tell anyone, _especially_ you," Martha told him. "That girl cared what you thought of her. She wanted to be perfect in your eyes. As to me knowing about your little crush, I had no idea! You always ran around keeping things to yourself when you were that age. Why didn't you tell me? Son, this is great. I prayed you would come to your senses-'

"Mom!" he calmed her down. "What happened to her?"

Surprised wasn't even close to what he was feeling. Everything his mom just explained to him was making his head spin. She had seen Anna right after this thing that happened to her in college? His mother had known that the girl he deeply cared for, had possibly cared back? He understood why she kept it from him, but it still stung. He had grown up his entire life an outsider, never expecting anybody to give him a second thought because of the way the kids bullied him. Then Anna had entered his life. He could tell that she noticed how he was different, but she never asked and never pointed it out. Not even to her brother…

_**Smallville, 2002**_

_Clark was harvesting corn in the field as the hot July sun beat down on him. Despite its intense heat, Clark did not break a sweat at all that day. It must have been another alien trait that made him stand out on this planet. He could hear his dad driving around on the lawnmower out front, finally cutting the grass after his mother had nagged Jonathon about it for a week. He could also hear Mitch working in the barn, securing beams and pounding a hammer onto a nail. He looked over his shoulder, towards his house where he saw his mother cooking dinner and Mitch's sister, Anna, returning inside the house after watering flowers for his mother. She had moved back here with Mitch a year ago after their parents died… a car crash, he heard. The girl was miserable the first few weeks she lived here, but Mitch explained that she missed her old life. She was interesting, but he had to keep his distance. While Mitch knew that Clark had unusual abilities- incredible strength, different vision than everyone else, higher senses- he had moved before Jonathon disclosed his son's true nature. Neither of the Holmes children knew that he had alien lineage. Anna was completely oblivious to the fact that he had x-ray vision, built in lasers, superhuman strength among other powers, Mitch had kept it to himself. _

_Clark heard his dad let out a sharp yelp of pain and what sounded like the lawnmower falling atop of him. He wasted no time in running to save his father. Jonathon was pinned beneath it, the blades cutting the grass hadn't stopped moving and the way his father was squirming, his foot would be caught up in it. Clark effortlessly lifted the machine off of his dad, denting it in the process and pushed it several feet away. He then helped Jonathon to his feet who thanked his son for the speedy rescue. _

"_What would become of this farm if we didn't have you," Jonathon remarked, returning to his lawnmower to examine the damage Clark had inflicted upon it. _

_Clark, confident his dad wouldn't fall victim to the machine once more, turned to head back to the corn, but stopped dead when he saw Anna standing in the doorway. Her facial expression clearly conveyed that she didn't know what to make of what she had just seen happen in front of her. Clark was sure she would run to Mitch, tell him she saw their landlord's son lift a tractor with one hand, breaking it in the process, and move it away from where he stood. After a few seconds, she did something he hadn't expected, though. Anna smiled at him. In that smile she seemed to be saying, it's okay, I don't care what the rest of the world thinks. You are still Clark Kent, my landlord's son, not some freak like the rest of this town believes. She opened her mouth to say something, but his mom called her back into the kitchen before she was able to say it... _

"When I got there, Clark, she had woken up in a hospital after being unconscious for several days," his mom informed him, forcing him back into the present. A wistful tone replaced the joyous one she had spoken with when he arrived earlier.

He took another drink of his tea while trying to process what he learned. Why would Anna have been at the hospital? The scar on her wrist came to his mind. What if someone had attacked her? They tried to force themselves on her?

"Did some man hurt her?" Clark demanded, feeling a rush of anger throughout his body.

"No, no, no," Martha assured him, taking his hand. "Nobody forced themselves on her. The doctors had assured her of that. They can tell these days, you know?"

"Then what?" Clark demanded. "Mom, I need to know, cause' I'm in the dark here."

"Maybe that's something you should let her tell you herself?" she suggested, making it clear she didn't want to give away anything else.

_Oh Anna,_ he thought to himself, wishing he could have been there to hold her when that happened to her. Who would have done such a thing to her? Who would have harmed her?

Just then, an idea dawned on Clark. Anna had to have roomed with somebody at UCLA and maybe she would have been close with her roommate. If he could locate this person then he could figure out a few more details before he returned to Metropolis with a new approach.

"Thanks for the tea," he excused himself from the table. "I'll see you soon."

When he took off, he had Los Angeles as his planned destination. The blue suit and red cape would be a welcome sight, it would help him gain access to information without any questions. Whoever sat behind the receptionist's desk at the office of housing administration wouldn't hesitate to assist Superman in something. Within seconds he could see the university's main building and appalled students pointing up at him with shouts of delight.

"Superman!" he heard from the ground as flew closer to the earth, through the doors of the housing administration and into the secretary's office.

Clark stopped himself in front of the receptionist's desk, who couldn't control her shock.

"Oh my God!" she shrieked and began shaking her hands from excitement. "You saved the world! And you're here! I can't!"

He smiled at her, appreciating her exhilaration. It felt odd to be so well known and still not known at all. What would have this woman thought of him if she had known him growing up? He wouldn't be a hero in a suit, but someone who had to be contained, locked up.

Clark put up a finger to his lips, "Shh, let's keep this meeting just between us."

"Okay," she breathed, closing her blinds so that people wouldn't see he was there. "Why are you here? Oh my God, my friends will not believe me! Superman is actually talking to me! I dreamed about this ever since that alien guy-not you, Zod- came here looking for you!"

"I need your help," he notified her.

"Of course," she agreed without a second's thought. "Wait what? I'm just a secretary! If there are more aliens, you will just have to find someone else, miste-"

"I need records of students who lived on campus in 2003 and 2004," he said. "Can you do that? Do you have those?"

"Yeah, it's all computerized," the secretary seemed to have relaxed, all of her attention directed on bringing up the list of students. "Who are you looking for?"

"The roommate of Anna Holmes," Clark told her as she stopped typing and looked up at him. "Do you know this person? It's important that I speak with them."

"I _am_ her," she informed him, her mouth hanging open. "Mel Finegan."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mel," Clark said. "I'm sorry to say I don't have time to explain, but I need to know what was going on in Anna's life during that time."

"She was a good roommate, clean and quiet- that is unless she came home from parties," Mel admitted. "She would get so hammered at these parties and come back going on and on and on about this guy on a farm in Kansas. You'd think a girl as pretty as her could find some cute guy such as yourself, but _no_ it had to be farm boy from Kansas!"

Clark smiled at that last part, finding it ironic. He _was _the guy from Kansas, but he was afraid he had been duped by this woman. Anna hadn't been the type of girl who viewed drinking as a way to escape. For her it had always been her writing and her jokes to ease whatever pain she felt.

"Thank you, Ms. Finegan," Clark grinned at her before taking off again, knowing he was just a blur of red and blue to the people of Earth below him.

**Let me know what you thought!**


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter is brought you by GravityDefier7827. Couldn't have posted without her help! Thank you for all of the reviews and follows. This story has become the most followed from the ones I have written! All of you are wonderful! **

**Someone brought up descreptancies in an earlier chapter, I'd like to thank you, jakefan! I didn't notice the gravestone when I saw the movie, so sorry about that! To cover for that mistake, I'm going to say Clark stayed on the farm upon graduating high school to help his parents, then when Anna ran away, his father died in the tornado and he then began to move around, working from place to place. Sorry about that again! **

**I hope everyone who reads, enjoys and, of course, reviews. They make my day and make me jump up around from excitement. Soooo enjoy! **

**Chapter 6 : A Night on the Town**

Anna threw herself on the hotel bed, allowing every single body part to finally relax. While it had been an uneventful day after the interview, filled with figuring out who lived in the apartment next door to the Morris' and trying to find her husband, Anna felt her muscles weeping from beneath her skin. They were accusing her of staying up too late, rising up too early, and not taking a minute to rest. Last night, she had walked around the entire day in high heels, after which she had been nearly drowned by her fake ex-boyfriend. Then, she flew to D.C only for her boss to give her a half-assed compliment and send her back to Metropolis. She was tired and nothing would make her stand up from the bed. That was when she heard a knock on the door.

"Eckert, go away!" she cried out. "Go back to organizing your ties or making sure your shoe laces are evenly tied!"

"It's Clark," she heard, prompting her to jump to her feet, once again ignoring the protest coming from her muscles.

She didn't care that her hair was in a wavy mess from the braid she had it in earlier, or that she had changed from a nice dress into leggings and an oversized, white shirt. That afternoon by the café, Clark had made her feel like she was seventeen again. She felt like she could conquer the world whenever he was around.

When she opened the door, she saw him standing in the doorway, a white shirt on paired with jeans. He still had his glasses on, but Anna knew he didn't need them. When she had lived on the farm, not once had he put on a pair of glasses, not even sunglasses. The man had perfect vision, so, then, what was he hiding behind those glasses? Who was he trying to fool? Why was he trying to fool them?

_It's your inner cop,_ Eckert's words echoed in her mind as she welcomed Clark inside.

"Hey, I didn't know it was you," she told him, feeling her stomach tighten up as she allowed herself to look Clark over. The shirt he wore now emphasized the great size of his arms. For someone who wrote articles, he was fitter than any agent or military personnel she had met. He hadn't shaved, which allowed for some stubble to grow back.

"I gathered," he said, staring at her with a thoughtful look on his face. "What are you doing right now?"

Anna looked longingly at her pillow, a wave of exhaustion hitting her, "Not sleeping. That's for sure!"

Clark laughed at her response, "Sorry, I thought you might have been hungry and… would you like to go out to eat with me? We can call it supper, like your hobbits. We could catch up, you know?"

Anna grinned up at him, feeling her face turn pink and this odd sensation of joy in her chest. This wasn't supposed to be happening. Yes, he made her feel better, but how could they catch up? She wanted to tell him everything, but it was too difficult for her. If the men she dated (not for very long, but date nonetheless) before, who weren't half the man Clark was, had walked away from her? Why would he stay? The way he had asked her, though. He asked incorporating hobbits! How could she say no to that?

"Yes," she agreed, nervously laughing."Only if you say it. You've got to say my favorite line!"

She saw Clark hesitate, but give in a moment later, "One does not simply _walk_ into Mordor. There is evil there that does not sleep."

Anna cheered in delight as she grabbed her purse that she had dropped on a chair and led Clark outside the hotel room. That had been two for two. Not only had he remembered what her favorite fandom was, but he had remembered what her favorite line was as well!

"Where are we going?" she asked Clark when they exited the hotel, walking side by side down the busy streets of Metropolis.

"How does Coney Island sound?" he suggested as Anna considered the idea. She was hungry and didn't want to wait long for her food. The idea seemed fantastic to her. She could practically taste the chili hot dog that would come with a side of fries.

"Like Christmas is being celebrated early," she remarked, making him smile.

For the first time in a long while, Anna felt as if she didn't have to put up a face. She was safe in Clark's company, but she didn't exactly know from what. The thing she let happen to her was awful and she still didn't want Clark to know, but what was she afraid of? This memory couldn't kill her, no matter how many times a day it crept back into her mind, it couldn't change her back into that person, it couldn't creep out of her head and harm her. Eckert had been right when he said that not everybody saw the scar when they looked at her. She had to trust that the person she was now would shine through rather than the person she had been.

"That's good to hear, cause' I don't really want to wait for food," Clark let her know.

"That's what I was thinking!" she excitedly informed him, her mind automatically noting that they had thought alike.

_A rainbow in the storm, _she reminded herself. _And Eckert's probably right, Clark does have some of his own secrets. _

That last thought made Anna remember something strange that she had witnessed on the Kent farm. She had let it slip from her mind as her life went on and more things occupied her thoughts. Being with Clark now, though, had brought it up to the surface…

_**Smallville, 2002**_

"_Stupid Emma Reid!" Anna vented to herself as she ran up the dirt driveway of the Kent farm, coming home from school. _

_Anna was furious that Emma had received a higher grade than she did on an English project. She wouldn't have minded if the other girl's story had been an original idea, but she had stolen it from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's _Sherlock Holmes!_ The girl had plagiarized while Anna stayed up for weeks, working on her plot, tweaking every other sentence, having Mrs. Kent read it over, then having Mitch read it over again. Anna put a lot of effort into her pieces while others copied and pasted from the internet. Then the teacher had the nerve to tell Anna she was good, but needed more practice while Emma seemed to have mastered the skills of writing. _

"_Yeah, right! She mastered the skills of stealing!" Anna shouted while she stared at the degrading "B+" that had been written with red marker on her paper. _

_She saw Mr. Kent staring at her from his pickup truck which he was working on. Anna quickly waved to him, leaving him perplexed as she jogged up the stairs to go inside the Kent home. She had to complain to somebody and Mrs. Kent would be the lucky person. _

_When she opened the door, Anna found her folding laundry on her couch, watching the news. Mrs. Kent wore jeans and a feminine blouse. Her brown hair was beginning to gray, but Anna saw store bought hair dye sitting on the coffee table beside a couple of nail polishes. _

"_What's all that yelling about?" she asked the angry teenager. _

"_This," Anna held up her story. _

_Mrs. Kent took a quick glance at it before grabbing another shirt to fold, "That's a good grade, Anna." _

_The girl shrugged her shoulders, took her backpack off and placed it near the door so that she wouldn't forget it when she would leave. She sat down beside Mrs. Kent and began to help her fold laundry. _

"_I worked so hard on that," Anna confided in the older woman. "Then Emma Reid brags how she just stole the plot from a _Sherlock Holmes _story and she gets an" A"."_

"_Look, honey, life is not going to be kind," Mrs. Kent explained to her. "We'll work honestly, we'll work hard and there will always be someone who cheats their way to the top. You'll get older and start graying while your best friend will still look like she's thirty. You'll mess up when everyone expects you to be perfect, you'll find yourself in situations where you want something more than anyone and yet someone who hasn't worked for it gets it. Does this mean you blow up every time?"_

_Anna suddenly felt silly for becoming so upset over the grade. Yes, she worked endlessly on it and had given up her life for the story, but she had enjoyed writing it. Wasn't that all that mattered? She loved her characters, she loved her plot line and, of course, there was room for improvement, but at least she didn't resort to stealing someone else's ideas. She had earned her grade unlike Emma._

"_I guess not," she shrugged as something dinged from the kitchen. _

"_That'll be dinner! Can you go get Jonathon and Clark for me? Jonathon's out by the car and Clark's out in the barn working on something," Mrs. Kent asked of Anna, who stood up from the couch and made her way to the door. _

"_Hey, , your foods ready!" she called out to her landlord._

"_Coming!" he assured her, grinning._

_She trudged through the grass towards the old barn, walking past Mr. Kent who was now wiping his hands on a rag. The barn door was closed, which wasn't unusual. While Smallville was small, the Kent's liked to keep their things locked up so as to avoid any theft. When Anna was able to heave the wooden doors open, she saw Clark, her heart beginning to beat abnormally in her chest because he was the older cute guy who was friends with her brother. His back was to her, but she could see sparks flying, as if he were using some type of torch to wield something together._

"_Hey, Clark!" she shouted, approaching him, the sparks ceasing to fly. _

_He turned so that he was facing her, but his eyes seemed to be glowing red! She quickly blinked to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. After her parents died, her mind had begun to play tricks on her. Perhaps it had been something psychological to explain for it because sane people didn't hallucinate if they weren't on drugs. When Anna looked up at him again, she noticed they weren't as glowing as red as she had mistook them to be. They weren't glowing at all, which proved her mind had played a trick on her. _

"_Yeah?" he asked. _

_Clark was a quiet person, at least when she was around. He didn't talk much to her unless he had to, but she really wanted that to change. He was respectable and cared about his parents. Mitch couldn't think of a better friend. Anna found him to be intriguing. From her experience in Los Angeles, if a guy looked the way Clark did, then girls would throw themselves all over him, Anna probably would have been included in that crowd if her mother hadn't forced her to put her school work ahead of her social life. Anyway, here he was, a man who worked hard, was smart and kind. He had good looks, yet no girl in Smallville wanted anything to do with him. Why? What was this flaw that had made him the black sheep of the town? Did he just not like the people here? _

"_Your mom made dinner," Anna notified him, glimpsing at what he had been working on._

_She was able to tell that it was a metal beam, Jonathon had been talking about a weak part of the roof that he wanted to fix using metal beams. What surprised her was that there were no tools lying around. What had been the cause of those sparks she had seen when she had entered the barn? Could it actually have been Clark's eyes that had formed the type of heat to melt metal? Did her mind honestly see his eyes glowing red or had she hallucinated the entire thing? In the extreme possibility that they _had _been glowing, had he realized it? She brushed it off, not wanting to let him know she was acting foolish, but it bothered her…_

As Anna thought about that point in time, she looked at Clark. He had clear, blue eyes that were not glowing red, yet her gut was telling her that she knew what she saw. There had been other things she had seen him do that she couldn't explain. While lifting a huge lawnmower off of his father could be explained by an adrenaline rush, denting the machine with one hand could not have been. One time, when his parents had gone away for the weekend and Anna went to her friend's house for the night, some guys tried to vandalize the farm. They had been able to subdue Mitch and beat him up, leaving him with many bruises. It had not been the same story with Clark. When Anna returned from her friend's house, she was expecting him to at least look roughed up, but it appeared as if he hadn't even been touched. She knew he had been attacked, though. Mitch had told her that the men ambushed both of them, not only her brother.

Why had she forgotten about these events? Maybe she looked past them because she had been so infatuated with him. It wasn't like the feelings she had, had left her, otherwise she wouldn't have agreed to accompany him to Coney Island, but she had to know what was going on with him. Eckert must have influenced her memory when he mentioned that everybody had secrets. She felt more comfortable knowing that she wasn't the only one with them. A truth for a truth, if he wanted to know what happened to her, he would have to tell her his story.

**MoS**

"How'd you get into reporting?" Anna asked Clark while he watched her dip a french- fry into ketchup. She bit the fry, accidentally smearing ketchup on her face, then used her napkin to wipe it off.

The pair was seated in a booth at a Coney Island that was nearly empty. An old song he forgot the name of was playing and he was enjoying the opportunity to be able to speak with her, just the two of them. No weird, rich people around making him feel out of place and no Lois asking her questions about the Bureau.

Anna had opened up a lot more since their encounter earlier that day. It was clear that she was allowing herself to be comfortable around him again by the way she had stopped making sarcastic remarks. No longer was she stand-offish, acting as if she had something to hide. As long as he didn't push her to explain why she gave up writing, then they would have a pleasant evening that might result in her telling him herself. Besides, he had a general idea from what his mother had revealed to him and from what Mel had explained, if there was any truth to that story.

He wasn't sure how to tell her that he had been a reporter for only a few months because he had been working odd jobs here and there. He was sure she would notice that the timeline of his life coincided with that of the appearance of Superman, but if he lied, he was sure she would notice.

"I worked different jobs before I got this one," he informed her, a warm feeling had settled in his chest that he hadn't felt for some time.

"Like what?" she questioned, genuinely interested, a smile on her face that he had seen earlier that afternoon.

This smile made her look like a totally different person. It gave her life, a kind of glow. Even now as she sat across him with messy hair, ketchup-y hands and clothes way too big for her, she looked pretty.

"I worked with fishermen for a little while," Clark admitted as he forced himself to focus on what he wanted to say instead of Anna's looks. He had to avoid the story about the oil rig, for now.

"Did you get seasick?" Anna asked, keeping the conversation lively and asking a question that didn't involve lying.

In thirty-three years Clark had never been sick. He had never experienced a stomach ache, sea-sickness, or even a headache. He could only imagine what it must have felt like, but it was hard for him. It was like attempting to describe colors to someone who was blind.

"I never threw up or anything like that," he explained. "Almost had a cage fall on me, though. That was when the captain decided risking his life to save mine wasn't worth it, so he let me go."

"Where'd you go after that?"

"I worked near the Canadian border for a little while as a busboy in a bar," Clark told Anna as he realized she was looking at him with a gleam in her eyes, like she were impressed by what she was hearing. He didn't think he was all that interesting, but he liked that Anna, who didn't know he was Superman, was sitting there, gazing at him like that. Of course, there was the possibility that she would be horrified when she found the truth out, but everybody seemed to like Superman after he stopped Zod's destruction of the human race. He liked that she knew Clark and liked him for that, not seeing him as Superman or an alien.

"What about you?" Clark asked, changing the focus to her. "You're an FBI agent. What's that like?"

Anna laughed, throwing her head back, "Don't even ask. It's either crazy scary for a couple of minutes or it bores you. There is no medium between the two."

Clark found himself chuckling at her response. How could it be boring? He saw her jump into a pool after chasing down a suspect who then tried drowning her. If this was the type of work she did everyday, then he didn't think there was time to be bored.

"Alright, alright," Clark nodded his head. "What do you do when you're not in danger of dying of boredom or the hands of a suspect?"

Anna laughed again at his question, "Great way to word a question!"

"Thought you'd appreciate it," he grinned at her, taking a bite of his hamburger.

"Um, I-can't tell you! You're gonna' laugh," she hesitated, looking up at him, her face turning red.

"No, come on!" he urged her, drinking his water. "I want to know."

"Eckert makes me bowl with his bowling team," she confessed as guffawed, nearly spitting out the water in his mouth. "I knew this would happen!"

"You bowl?" he asked, just to make sure she hadn't been joking.

"It's either that or watch _Ancient Aliens_ all weekend," she told him, giggling uncontrollably.

Clark couldn't help but notice that he loved this. Sitting, laughing and catching up. He wasn't an alien right now just like whatever had happened with Anna wasn't defining her. Also, she seemed to like aliens from her last statement, so that was an advantage he had over every other man on the planet.

"Speaking of aliens," Anna began. "What's with Superman?"

"What do you mean?" Clark asked, his heart stopping in his chest. Had she found out the truth? When he rescued her from Brady had she caught a glimpse of his face and recognized him?

"I mean, you're a reporter! Someone at the Daily Planet must have looked into him!" she shot down the momentary fear of having been exposed.

"Lois has spoken to him a few times," he answered, technically not lying. Lois _has_ spoken to him a few times.

"What's he like?" she pried.

"I…" Clark began, wanting to tell her that Superman was sitting right across from her, eating a hamburger, but it didn't feel quite right yet. "I'm not exactly sure. You'd have to ask Lois. What do _you _think of him, though?"

That last part may have been purely out of selfish reasons. He wanted to know what she thought of his true nature, without having to tell her first.

"I think he's wonderful," Anna told him in a mesmerized tone. "Not because he has all these powers, but he's selfless for wanting to actually help us. We're so imperfect. We're selfish, violent, we don't care, we kill each other and yet this man, for whom it would have been easier to wipe out humanity and help rebuild Krypton on Earth, chose us over his own kind. He chose to be alone so that we could continue living."

A skinny waitress came over to their table while Clark allowed her answer to sink, "Will everything be separate or on the same bill?"

"Same," Clark answered, pulling out his wallet as Anna sighed.

"It'll be an even twenty," the waitress said as he handed her a twenty dollar bill.

"What was that sigh for?" he questioned when their hostess walked away.

"I feel bad, you didn't have to pay for my food," she explained.

He shook his head, happily "I want to prove that chivalry isn't dead."

"Chivalry is for people who're dating," Anna jested, biting nervously on the straw that was in her glass of iced tea.

"Why don't we consider this the first one, then?" he blurted out, not fully realizing he had somehow found the courage to actually say it. Maybe it had come from the fact that she wouldn't think he was a freak who deserved to be under surveillance.

She beamed up at him, "Okay, but if there's going to be a second date, I don't want any of that 'three days rule' crap!"

"Fantastic, I'll pick you up again tomorrow," he grinned back at her, hoping she didn't find him cocky after that remark.

Things were looking up for him again and with time he was confident Anna would tell him her big secret, just like he would tell her that it had been him the whole time donning the red cape.

**Let me know what you think, please and thanks : )**


	7. Chapter 7

_Thank you to everyone, everybody's reviews made my life. I'm very grateful for everybody who is reading, favoriting, and reviewing. You all are simply amazing and make me strive to be a better writer, to push myself harder! Thank you specifically to GravityDefier7827, WinterRain36, JenB, tribute14 and ImmortalMyrddin. Your reviews always make me want to grab a pen and just write all day without any breaks. Each review always brings a smile to my face : ) - see? _

_Without further ado, chapter seven! Hope it's enjoyable!_

**Chapter 7 : You and I'll be Safe and Sound**

Anna turned the corner, walking in the direction of her hotel, a lightness in her step and a belly full of french-fries. She had been on her first date with Clark Kent! Not only that, but the second date was already guaranteed! She couldn't contain her excitement, she jumped up from joy and squealed.

"You okay?" a passerby asked with a perplexed look on his face.

Anna forced herself to calm down, putting on a straight face she replied, "Can't a girl just show the world how happy she is?"

She continued on for a few blocks, heading to her hotel. If her mind had not been in the clouds, perhaps she would have noticed a group of five men following her from a distance. She might have picked up the pace in her step or ducked into a nearby store for safety, but Anna Holmes did not see the men walking behind her and she did not expect what would come next. When she rounded a corner into an empty street, a large, bulky man who must have frequented the gym, sprinted to her.

"You look lost," he remarked to her as stepped away from him, noticing the four others who were now catching up to their ring leader.

Anna felt her heart begin to race in her chest from a rush of adrenaline. True, she was an FBI agent, but this was not a fair fight. There were five, grown men, all of which weighed a lot more than she did.

_Control your breathing, don't show fear and remember, eyes, neck, groin,_ she told herself in attempt to calm down. The self assurance was not helping her, nor was the fact that they were now circling around her.

_Don't offer them your purse, _she ordered herself. _That'll only encourage them to see what else they can take from you. _

"Really? I don't feel lost," she replied, trying to seem as if she were oblivious of whom they really were. It gave her an upper hand if they thought she was an idiot."You guys walk like this all-"

"Shutup!" one of the men who sported a goatee and wore a bandanna wrapped around his head, shouted at her pushing her into his friend with tattoos covering every inch of his arms.

Her back hit tattoo man as she let out a shriek and her purse fell to the ground. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a nearby alley that reeked of rotten garbage. She tried to free herself, but his grip was too tight around her. She attempted kicking him, but he had been able to stop her from moving her legs by cleverly blocking her them with his own. The ring leader slapped her across the face, his dirty nails scratching her cheek in the process. Anna couldn't believe that this was happening. Why had she assured Clark to go home, that she would be okay walking to the hotel by herself? Why had she been so stupid to tell him that? She didn't have her gun with her and even if she did, what good would it have done her now?

_Stop it! If he were here, he could have been hurt! _she yelled at herself internally.

The men began to help themselves to the belongings of her purse while she watched helplessly as her wallet was pocketed by a man with an enormous beer gut. After taking their spoils, the ring leader approached her once more. He was much older than she was, he had one of those faces that had a scar running along the length of it, making his aura even more terrifying. His eyes were green and filled with plans of the sinister things he would do to her. She wanted to hurt him, she wanted to hurt all of them for doing this.

"You know, usually we just take purses," he said to her, taking her shirt and lifting it up to expose her abdomen. He ran a clammy finger along the waist band of the leggings, making her skin crawl in the process.

_God no, God please no, don't let this happen, _she began freaking out, still trying to free herself from the death grip of tattoo man. _God please, please, please. I'll do anything! I don't want this to happen!_

"Seems like you've got that one covered," Anna answered, trying to shove her fear deep down in her gut, but she was aware that her voice was shaky. She didn't think any woman who knew she was going to be sexually assaulted would be okay.

"Since you're done, how about letting me go, leaving me my license and setting me free, eh?" she mustered some courage to say a snarky comment. For all she knew, it may have been her last.

"This whore thinks she's special," beer gut man said, making the other four around laugh and her want to cry.

_Headbutt! _she suddenly thought to herself.

Anna acted upon instinct, hitting the back of her head against tattoo man's face, causing him to let out a grunt and let her go. She fell to the ground, grabbed beer gut man's legs, making him fall down onto the two other men who were still hunched over her purse. She had been winning the fight for her life until the ring leader pulled out a gun on her. She began to pray, asking God for forgiveness for all of her sins, expecting to die in the next few seconds as she lost hope for her life. The metal gun the leader held began to turn from its natural silver color to a scorching red. She could see steam coming off of it and his face contort into one of pain.

"Mother fu-" the leader began to scream out as he dropped the gun and was pushed out of the way by someone who Anna never thought she would see again.

The man who had saved her life from Brady in the pool was now saving her life on the abandoned street. She looked up at the sky, allowing the realization that she was safe from harm, sink in. She let out a sigh, closing her eyes and allowing herself to breathe. She could feel the muscles, which had tensed up during the ambush, relax.

"You actually heard my prayers," she said to the sky, still sitting on the ground and thanking God, while Superman took care of the other men.

She still hadn't been able to catch a glimpse of his face, but he quickly, more quickly than humanly possible, took her by the hand and put his own around her waist. She felt her feet off the ground as she held on to him and when she looked down, they were higher than any plane had ever been, or at least she assumed so. Her grip around her savior's neck tightened and she buried her head in his shoulder, as she was frightened of heights. She could feel his hand around her waist. It was comforting, it felt as if he was telling her he would never leave her and continue to protect her from all of the dangers in the world.

When she glanced down again, she saw they were slowly approaching the roof of one of the many tall, apartment complexes in Metropolis. Her feet touched the concrete floor, but she still didn't want to let go of him. She wanted to stay in the protective grasps of Superman. When she finally did let go she looked at him, but he already had his back to her and stood on a ledge.

"Why do you keep rescuing me?" she asked, not knowing what else to say.

"If you would like me to stop, I can," he replied in a very proper, matter-of-factly way, staring down onto the street bellow him.

Anna felt as if she could recognize the voice, if he spoke differently, maybe, but she brushed the thought away.

"No," she quickly corrected herself. "I meant to say thank you. I was petrified and would have peed my pants if you hadn't saved me."

"You are on the roof of your hotel," he told her, as she felt her eyebrows arch.

How had he known where she was staying at? Had he been spying on her? If so, for what reason? The idea of Superman needing her help crossed her mind, but why her? Was it pertained to the case she was working on, the disappearance of Yvonne Morris? Was he investigating it himself and had he found she was given this particular case? It couldn't have been that, he had showed up at the party last night, which was a case completely unrelated to her current one.

_Just stop thinking so much,_ she mentally slapped herself. _This guy saves your life twice and you assume he's stalking you. _

"Stay safe, Agent Holmes," he ordered.

"Where are you going?" she asked, running up to the ledge, stopping herself when it dawned on her that she had to respect his privacy.

He didn't want her to see his face for a reason and she would respect that fact. The inner investigator in her immediately began to wonder why. If he wore no mask because he was confident that nobody would know who he was if they saw him on the street, then why was he hiding from her? Anna could only come up with one solution and that was that she must have known who he was! He must have disguised himself so that people didn't recognize him, but if Anna saw Superman's face, she would be able to identify him and that was what he was scared of!

"To make sure they don't run off," Superman explained before taking off again, the force of his departure causing the ledge to crumble a bit.

Anna stood on the roof, trying to collect her mind and figure out what to do with herself. She couldn't just go to sleep after something like this occurred. She had nearly been raped and her things had been stolen. Not to mention she may have been on the brink of discovering who Superman was.

Who, in her life could have been Earth's caped protector? Eckert? They spoke similarly, extremely proper and formal, but she could read Eckert like a book and they told each other everything. Unless of course, he had made himself seem that way, he acted like a proper fool on purpose, to make her believe she could read him. Anna shook her head as she realized that Eckert couldn't have been Superman. When General Zod attacked Earth, he flat out informed the planet that Kal-El, Superman, was an alien. Whoever raised this man on Earth was not a biological parent to him, they wouldn't look alike.

Eckert also had no hair! Superman had curly, dark hair sort of like... Clark. She hit her forehead with her hand. Of course Clark, the guy she just had her first date with, would be an alien superhero. It would explain why he began to wear glasses when he didn't need them and all of the unusual things she had come to believe were hallucinations, tricks her mind had played on her. Those things Anna had seen Clark do in Smallville had been exhibited by Superman. The gun the man in the alley pulled on her began turned red from something that made it hot. Anna could remember Clark's glowing eyes in the barn, the dent he made in the lawn mower with one hand and the lack of scratches or bruises after the home invasion. Clark had also been near the places that Superman had appeared in. He was at the fundraiser Brady had held at the mansion, then, he couldn't have been more than a block or two, including a corner and an alley, away from the scene of her assault.

Anna took a deep breath before turning towards the door that led downstairs. She had to tell Eckert what happened. He always seemed to be the only person who was around when something drastic happened in her life. It was no secret she annoyed him, but she was thankful that he always listened to her. If she had anybody else to tell, any one at all, she would. All of her friends from high school, however, had most likely forgotten about her and Anna left behind the friends she made in college, for reasons pertaining to the way she had obtained the scar on her arm.

She couldn't even talk to her own family because they had all passed away. Her parents would have encouraged her to find out the truth, though. Her dad, an author who had moved to Smallville to focus on his writing career, received a job from the Los Angeles Citizen and strove to always find the truth. "The truth, in any situation, is the most important thing," her father would always tell her. She missed him so much, her mom too, but she was her father's daughter and wanted the truth.

Then there was Mitch, the two weren't close to begin with, though. Her brother always kept huge parts of his life a secret from her, for example, his cancer. When he had gotten sick, he hadn't told Anna or anybody, really. His health degenerated each time she saw him, he had lied to her, telling Anna it was exhaustion. Close to the end, though, she did her own digging, remembering her father's determination to find out the facts, and learned he had kidney cancer that would take his life. It made her angry that he lied, but even so, her brother had been her friend. They had a mutual understanding that if something happened to one of them, the other would go to the ends of the Earth to help. That's why Anna did everything in her power to make his last days the most comfortable ones he ever had.

"Oh Mitchell," she sighed, opening the door, peering at the sky one last time before she descended the steep stairs. "What secrets did you take to the grave with you? Did you know something about Clark?"

**MoS**

Anna pounded on Eckert's hotel room door, she would have called him to inform him that he should be expecting her, but her phone was currently somewhere out on the streets of Metropolis. She waited a minute, which felt more like an eternity, before pounding on it again. Knowing Eckert, he was most likely checking his mattress for bed bugs or making sure that he was brushing his teeth in perfect circles. As lame as he was, he was a good partner and Anna could tell that all of his quirky traits were things to take his mind off of his divorce. Anna couldn't believe that his wife was keeping their daughter from him because he was too dedicated to his job. He had provided for them for six years, refused to leave the woman's side when she gave birth to their child and always called to tell her where he was and what he was doing.

When he still hadn't answered, Anna kept pounding, "Ryan, _please!_"

She began to make whimpering noises so that he would believe she was crying. Eckert could never leave a woman who was crying by herself. It hadn't dawned on him, after playing this card on him multiple times, that Anna never actually cried. The only times she could remember lamenting over situations in her life were when her parents died, when Mitch passed away and the day she ran away, believing Clark did not care for her.

The door to Eckert's room swung open, revealing the agent in his plaid, boxers and white t-shirt, "What is so important that I can't iron my socks?"

Anna laughed, not able to take him seriously at that moment, "It was normal and then you said socks, as if people actually see them through you shoes."

"Make this quick, I still have to even out my shoe laces," he advised as Anna rolled her eyes and shook her head. If it were anybody else standing in her spot, they would think that he were joking, but they would be wrong. Ryan Eckert took great measures in foot care.

"I was nearly raped tonight," she told him as he stood, his mouth open and a look of bewilderment on his face. "But it's okay Superman saved my life."

"I think that would qualify as important," he stepped aside, allowing her to walk into his room.

She heard him sniff something, making her insecure about herself. She must have smelled bad, she had, after all, sat on the ground in a dirty alley.

"You smell awful," he remarked as she headed straight for his couch.

"Why is that important right now?"

"Contamination."

"The only thing that's contaminated is your brain," she scoffed, not meaning to be rude. It was a defense mechanism. When Anna felt insecure, she would say mean things, sometimes they were funny, sometimes they were stupid, most of the time she wished she would just shut up.

"Very mature," he said. "How were you almost raped?"

"I went out with Clark and his apartment was in the other direction of the hotel from the restaurant, so I told him- I _insisted_- that he go straight home. Then there were these five guys who jumped me, stole my things and were going to rape me but Superman saved my life," Anna explained, feeling her muscles tense again at the thought of tattoo man's arms around her, making her feel like a caged animal. Then she thought of the ring leader's disgusting hands, slapping her across the face and touching her stomach.

Eckert handed her the covers off of his bed before he sat on the edge of it. He looked concerned, Anna could tell by the way he wasn't making a fuss about her "contaminating" his hotel room.

"Anna, you have to report this," he instructed her as caught sight of the television which had been playing on mute. On the screen, the men she had encountered were being led into a police station behind a platinum blonde reporter.

"I think Superman may have already taken care of that," she motioned towards the television with her head, curling up in the blankets he handed to her, unsure of whether she should tell Eckert her suspicions of Clark being the man of steel.

"What else is on your mind?" Eckert pried. The bad thing about having a partner you liked and trusted was that they knew when something was wrong. Eckert was more of a brother to Anna than Mitch had been. He knew about her college years, how she had trouble agreeing to second dates, and that she was one big mistake from being fired.

"You can't repeat this to anyone, Ryan," she told him, as he nodded his head, understanding that the following conversation would not be between partners, but between close friends.

"I understand," he replied.

"I think Clark may be Superman," she confessed as Eckert arched his brow.

"Seeing the way you're not making a joke out of this, I'm going to ask, why?"

"There were always these strange things that happened on the farm," she answered.

"Anna, you can't make an accusation like that and then hold out on details," Eckert said, urging her to reveal more.

"Clark has incredible strength. There were rumors in Smallville about him pushing a bus from a lake or something. I never heard anything directly, he's six years older than me and the kids in my class didn't really care about a guy who had already graduated, but living on the farm I saw things and I just thought it was my mind not working right," she explained to her partner.

"Like what?"

"Well one time he lifted a lawn mower off of his dad, then his eyes were red, as if they were burning and he never got hurt!" Anna divulged. "He's also wearing glasses now! He never had to wear glasses Eckert!"

She watched as Eckert fell back on his bed, placing his hands on his face in a way that indicated he just wanted to sleep.

"Anna, we have to get together with the cops tomorrow and you're suspecting the guy you have a crush on of being Superman based on things that hold no significance," Eckert sighed.

She felt as if something inside of her broke, she understood how insane it sounded and that's why she was telling Eckert. He was one of the few people she trusted; he had been the only contact she had during the days she worked undercover, he would keep things from their boss to protect her and he never broke his word. He knew she didn't make things up for the sake of lying, why was he having a hard time believing this?

"Eckert, I just told you something that's serious and you're just going to go to sleep?" Anna accused.

"You're assuming your new boyfriend is an alien based on what? A lawnmower?! Red eyes? And glasses?!" Eckert pointed out all the holes in her theory.

Anna probably should have thought about how she would deliver her suspicions to her partner. She sounded like a lunatic, but at the same time she couldn't go against her gut. It had never led her astray, in the FBI and in her daily life.

"His eyes were _glowing_ red! He dented a metal lawnmower with _one_ hand and he _never_ wore glasses in his life!" she nearly shouted at Eckert.

"Anna," Eckert let out an exasperated sigh as he sat up and shook his head. "You might have not even seen him dent it! The metal could have been dented before he even went anywhere near the machine. And you haven't seen this guy in what? Ten years? Eyesight gets worse as people age, Anna, and red eyes? Are you sure he wasn't just tired? Or drunk? You of all people should know about that!"

Anna felt as if she had been slapped in the face, which she had been earlier, but Eckert's words were like a fresh sting to her cheek. Her heart began to race from a mix of emotions, anger washed over her as did sadness. She knew exactly what he was referring to with his last statement and she couldn't believe that Eckert, the only person who she thought had been in her corner, had used the skeletons in her closet against her. She felt memories from college swim to the surface as she tried to fight them, but couldn't because she was powerless…

_**Los Angeles, California 2004**_

"_How's she doing?" Anna heard an unfamiliar voice ask from somewhere above her. _

"_She has to rest, I'm going to wait until she's awake to call family," another voice she couldn't recognize responded._

_She could feel light hitting her face from somewhere, trying to force her eyes open, but the pounding headache she had was keeping them shut. Anna could hear annoying, consistent beeps to her right, making her wonder what their origin was. She suddenly felt how stiff her body felt from laying on her back for… she couldn't remember how long she had been asleep. In fact, she couldn't remember anything besides putting on one of her favorite dresses and leaving to go to a party with one of her friends. _

_Anna tried to roll over to her side, but something tugged at her right arm, making it extremely uncomfortable. She opened her eyes, the light momentarily blinding her and causing her head to spin. When her vision cleared, she could see tubes attached to her arm and was beginning to feel a searing pain in her left wrist. She looked down at it and observed that her wrist wrapped in white gauze. Anna lifted her head and felt confusion wash over her. She was in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV tube with no memory of how she had ended up there. _

_She tried to stand up from the bed just as a woman who wore a white lab coat walked in. The woman had long, dark hair and dark eyes. Anna wanted to go home, not her dorm room at UCLA, but home to Smallville where she could see Mitchell and the Kents. She didn't care if Clark didn't feel the same way about her as she did about him. She wanted to be in her small room on the farm, having the comfort of knowing nothing could harm her in the little town. _

"_You're awake," she smiled at the teenager. " I'm Doctor Monica Simon."_

"_What happened?" Anna asked, eyeing her wrist._

"_Are you thirsty?" the doctor queried, ignoring Anna's question. "You should drink some water. It has so many benefits, it'll help get rid of the headache you're experiencing from the saline solution in the I.V." _

_Anna shook her head, "I just want to know what happened."_

_Doctor Simon looked around the room as if she were unsure of what to say. Did she even know what happened to Anna? Or did she just treat her? After a moment's hesitation, Doctor Simon pulled up one of the chairs in the room next to Anna's bedside, a grim expression on her face. _

"_Anna, you were brought in two days ago after campus police found you locked in a bathroom at one of the fraternity houses. This might be hard to hear, but they found you covered in blood, passed out from an incredibly high level of alcohol in your system," Doctor Simon revealed to her. "We had to take measures to ensure you wouldn't die from alcohol poisoning or from a loss of blood from your wrist."_

_Anna felt her mouth fall open in disbelief and shame. She had gone to the party, drank as if her life depended upon it and cut her own wrist? Anna knew she was sad because things weren't headed in the direction she thought they would be. She should have been recognized as the most talented writer in the freshman class by now, she should have fallen in love with someone who wasn't Clark Kent, and, most importantly, her daddy should have been there instead of his sister to see her make it to UCLA. Could those downfalls have made her so anxious that she had become an alcoholic? That she harmed herself in a bathroom? Was she capable of cutting open her own body? The thought horrified Anna, but, in some ways, it didn't surprise her. _

"_What happens now?" she asked the doctor, unable to look a normal human being in the eyes. "Am I going to be locked up for trying to kill myself?" _

_Doctor Simon bit her lip and glanced around the room as she had done earlier, "The legal system will want you to go to therapy because they believe you tried to kill yourself. The door was locked, there was a razor in your right hand, but when I was stitching your wound I noticed something that bothered me."_

"_What was it?" Anna asked, expecting to hear more bad news. _

"_The way your arm was cut, it may have been done by someone who was left handed," the doctor revealed to her as it dawned on Anna that she couldn't have cut herself if it had been a left handed person. Her left hand was the one that was injured. _

"_Are you saying that someone may have done this to me?" Anna questioned. "How can you tell?"_

"_It isn't conclusive, but this cut was clean, meaning one slice without any pauses. Someone, especially a young adult, who was trying to cut themselves would have stopped from the pain and continued. This would have left marks in the skin which would show where the person stopped and started. Also, someone who is cutting themselves tends to look at the part they're injuring. If you were looking at your wrist, your eyes should have been facing your palms, indicating that the cut would begin from the left, where your thumb is located, to your pinky. However my findings show that your cut began from the pinky to the thumb. Which is why I believe a left handed person must have done this," the doctor hurled a long explanation at Anna, causing her head to pound even more, but allowing a feeling of hope to settle within her. _

"_Well that's good, isn't it? That proves I didn't do it since my left hand is the one that's harmed," Anna pointed out as Doctor Simon developed a troubled look on her face. _

"_Because I say may have, it can be argued that you did in fact cut yourself, but in an odd way and because you were too intoxicated to remember any of this, you cannot make a statement to the courts on your own behalf," Doctor Simon informed Anna, causing her heart to sink. Courts? What did she mean by courts?_

"_What are you talking about?" she asked the older woman. _

"_You are going to go to a court hearing to determine whether or not you will need mandatory counseling. Anna I tried to contact your aunt for you, but she doesn't want anything to do with this. Since you're nearly nineteen, the police can't force her to let you in her home. Is there anybody you can call?" _

_Anna felt her world shatter. Everything was happening to fast for her to process it. She was hurt, she had been hospitalized and now she was being told her aunt didn't want anything to do with her? Despite the rubble, Anna didn't feel bad for herself. If she hadn't used the bottle to escape her problems, then perhaps she wouldn't be in this situation. She couldn't battle this on her own, however, and she couldn't call Mitchell because he would be too disappointed in her. Suddenly she thought of Mrs. Kent. She had to call Mrs. Kent who had never yelled at her for any of the stupid things she had done and always offered support. _

"_Martha Kent. She lives in Smallville, Kansas. The number is nine-eighteen, two-twenty two, forty eight, thirty three." Anna answered Doctor Simon. "Only her, though. I don't want anybody with her. If Mitchell, Clark or Jonathon answer the phone, insist that you need Martha."_

_The doctor nodded her head and exited the room to make a call to Smallville. Anna examined her wrist once more. She felt awful for allowing this to happen. If what Doctor Simon said was true, and she wasn't the one who did this to herself, if she didn't try killing herself, she would find out who did. She knew what to expect from the courts, that she was an anxious nineteen year old girl who couldn't handle the pressure of college and drank to escape before deciding she had found her way out at a fraternity house. There was this feeling Anna had, maybe it was her instincts or hope, that she didn't do this to herself. She had to figure out the truth… she had to figure out if she had done this or if someone hurt her._

_Writing wouldn't help her with that, though. Neither would the constant drinking. She knew in order to do this, she had to change her career path and put an end to the alcohol. It wouldn't be easy to change. Not her vocational plans nor the alcoholism, but she had to do it. In the event of evidence showing up supporting the theory that someone had hurt her, she wouldn't be the last one on this person's list. She was sure of it. The only thing that bothered her, was why? Why would someone want to make it look as if she tried killing herself? _

_As Anna began to sit up in her bed, she saw a large bruise on her left arm. She hadn't noticed it before because the hospital gown's sleeves had covered it up pretty well and it wasn't aching. It looked like the bruises she had after donating blood at Smallville High School's blood drive. She shook her head, deciding the hospital must have drawn her blood for testing. She didn't have time to stare at her injuries, she had some huge changes_

Anna looked at Eckert as the memory of that day left her mind. She stood up in silence, deciding that if she said something right then, then the words would have been words of anger and hurt. If she removed herself from the situation, she couldn't say anything stupid to Eckert, which would allow them both to have time to think.

"Where are you going? You don't have a key to your room!" Eckert called to her as she grabbed his key off of his table.

"I'm going to go to the fitness area to clear my mind," Anna replied, trying to stay as calm as possible, but anger seeped through every word she said. "Go to sleep while I'm gone Eckert, that way we won't kill each other when I get back."

With those final words, Anna rushed out of the room, allowing tears that she had held back to fall down her face. It was so hard to escape her past. She tried to prove she had made positive changes in her life, but her college alcoholism would not leave her alone. She wiped her tears away before entering an elevator. Exercise would help her alleviate the emotions that were running high at the moment, she didn't care if her body was up for it or not. After this, she would wake up tomorrow and focus on the case she had been assigned. She would finish her job, which was to find Yvonne Morris, not the man parading around as Superman.

**Thoughts? Feelings? I would love to hear them after working oh so hard on this chapter : ) **


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